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Twelfth Night - Live at the Target CD (album) cover

LIVE AT THE TARGET

Twelfth Night

 

Neo-Prog

4.00 | 56 ratings

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Modrigue
Prog Reviewer
4 stars Unique instrumental neo-space prog

Neo-prog lover or hater, please listen to this story...

One upon a time, a few years before the emergence of GENESIS-influenced neo-prog bands, a group of musicians wanted to explore new musical territories. Just after the departure of singer Electra McLeod, TWELFTH NIGHT was an instrumental unit, without a vocalist. They gave many concerts, two of them were recorded the 15th and 16th of January 1981, at the Target pub in their home town of Reading. Only four tracks were kept, mastered and released a month later as "Live at the Target".

No matter you like or dislike neo-prog genre, this is no GENESIS-influenced music like Marillion or IQ here. Instead, the band pursues the musical explorations of 70's trippy echo guitars compositions, reminiscent of Steve Hillage and Manuel Göttsching, by adding more melodic elements and approach of the nascent 80's decade. Fully instrumental, the result is magical, unique and dreamy. These unreal tunes will transport you to another world...

As soon as you hear "Für Helene"'s enchanting introduction, you know you're in for something special. This opener is a powerful space rock piece, supported by Andy Revell's Hillage-esque guitar. Mindblowing! "After the eclipse" is what vocal-less neo-prog music should be. Driven by synthesizers, this track possesses a beautiful keyboard melody, accompanied by bass and guitar, alternating soft, touching and rocking passages. My personal favorite from the record.

With its mystical opening, the echoing neo-space-rock "East to West" sounds haunting, heroic and even a little gothic at times. Another good composition, with various atmospheres. In a similar vein, "Sequences" is longer but lacks a bit of coherency. Somehow uneven, the first third contains good and also some boring passages. A cool and mysterious atmospheric interlude then unveils a wild cosmic guitar solo, until this 20 minutes suite ends on a magical and melancholic tone.

The 2004 double CD definitive edition is strongly recommended, as it features 9 previously unreleased tracks from 1979-1981, for more than 70 minutes of music, still entirely instrumental. "Afghan Single" and "Für Helene I" are studio recordings, the rest being live material. The included booklet is also very nice and holds many informations and photos.

Despite a sound quality not always perfect, "Live at the Target" is a forgotten little gem that deserves attention. Although the band hadn't released any studio album at the time, these live recordings prove TWELFTH NIGHT was already more creative than the 'classic' neo-prog bands that will come a few years later. There is originality and personality here, as if space-rock linguistic elements were used to paint an unknown oneiric world, whose entrance door would be the window from the cover art...

The recording period enhances the impression of uniqueness, as the dawn of the 80's were both a transitional and interrogative period both for the band (without any vocalist, after Electra McLeod's departure and before Geoff Mann) and the progressive genre in general. "Live at the Target" still remains a singularity, an anomaly in the fabric of musical space-time, difficulty explainable...

Give it a listen, even if you're allergic to neo-prog. Highly recommended to fans of Steve Hillage, Manuel Göttsching's "Inventions For Electric Guitar", space rock or... neo-prog.

Look at the window and fly through this enchanted night...

Modrigue | 4/5 |

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