ARGOT

Thieves' Kitchen's Argot is a fascinating album which manages to overcome rather threadbare production standards (the drum sound is particularly poor in places) in order to present an intriguing and highly original prog sound. Though many of the tones and textures draw from the neo-prog playbook, the song structures and atmospheres the band play with are sufficiently removed from the likes of Pendragon, IQ and Marillion that they seem to be off in their own sonic universe, creating unusually complex and intricate compositions which require repeated careful listens before they yield their secrets. "Argot" is a term for a secret language spoken by thieves, and certainly Thieves' Kitchen are rewriting the prog dictionary here, though I find the vocal sections to be a little weak, tending to be a little dissonant - and worse, dissonant in a way where I genuinely can't tell whether they are supposed to be that way or whether it's just an accident.