FACT AND FICTION

Twelfth Night, the band created by Andy Revell in the company of Brian Devoil, started out in 1978, releasing "Smiling at Grief" in 1982, a handful of pieces and demos considered to be their debut work. However, it was not until the release of "Fact and Fiction" that they found the stability of an album conceived as such. Also released in 1982, "Fact and Fiction" can be catalogued as one of the pioneers of neo-progressive, even before the irruption of future references such as Marillion or IQ.

The album tackles with ease such sensitive subjects as the obscurities of political power and its manipulative arts, the nuclear threat or insanity, with a scathing proposal, at times dramatic, and whose instrumental development impresses for the solidity with which the band executes it.

From the intricate and critical "We are Sane", where the histrionic and versatile voice of Geoff Mann (with a nod to the style of Peter Hammill) supported by the intriguing keyboards of Clive Mitten and the crystalline and sustained guitars of Revell, both orbiting over an atmosphere dominated by melancholy, the songs follow one another thickly, the dehumanised "Human Being" with Mitten's delicate piano notes and Revell's guitar solo, the disconsolate "This City" and its lamenting gait, but above all the sinister and super progressive "Creepshow", where again Mann's schizoid singing stands out, accompanied by an instrumentation to match in one of the best tracks of the album. And the general darkness of "Fact and Fiction" finds a small dose of luminous hope in the arpeggiated melody of "Love Song" to close the album with an epic denouement dominated by Revell's huge guitar solo and Mitten's concluding keyboard.

Beyond "Fact and Fiction", an excellent album, the fleeting presence of Mann, who left the band amicably a year later, and the irregularity of the next two albums, affected the general perception of Twelfth Night's brief studio discography.

4 stars.