THE LEAP

This album reminds me of a lemon. You cut a slice, then you squeeze it to extract the juice which will have Pop Art flavors with the vocal resemblances of PREFAB SPROUT (excellent group!), You recover the pulp as an instrumental texture with YES tinsel, you peel a zest whose yellow color will evoke the sun and the beaches of the Californian coast to the dazzling BEACH BOYS, you add a little sweetened sugar for a voice soberly retouched by the vocoder and sensations somewhat synthesized by numerous keyboards. You mix it all together, you taste and you will notice that the alcohol is missing which gives the necessary strength to a totally successful cocktail. Even if this opus contains some great successes, the recruitment of one or two seasoned accomplices with experience in the matter, could have made this affair more difficult by bringing a greater general basis, but this is only my humble opinion. Notwithstanding this presentation, the multi-instrumentalist VICTOR GO, who is at the origin of everything, gives us a fourth singular and worthy test, stamped Crossover Prog. This gentleman declaims his influences with the BEATLES, prog groups of the 70s such as YES, ELP, GENESIS, GENTLE GIANT, the icons of jazz fusion PAT METHENY, Al DI MEOLA, CHICK COREA. The main theme of this cake is the bisextile year 2020 with its hopes and alarms.

With "Once Again" and this album in general I can't help but think of PADDY MCALOON the singer of PREFAB SPROUT with his recognizable phrasing, which will be audible on many titles to come. On a tangy pop base devoid of catchy melody are grafted little jazzy tunes, one or two very short guitar riffs, and many synthetic and cinematic effects. At 3:35 you will notice a well-constructed passage with a dazzling synth nicely interwoven in a false rhythm, bringing a real little extra to this first track. "2020. Hopes and Alarms" begins like VANGELIS with soft and airy harmonies, sewn together by a pretty pianistic melody incorporated into a brassy and electric orchestration. The tone darkens and becomes chaotic as indicated in the title, with some drum rolls and a strong six string. "Last Hope" is almost a repeat of the first song with the blatant impression of listening to "Fly From Here" by YES mixed once again with PREFAB SPROUT ... I wouldn't speak of plagiarism, but of exaggeratedly obvious influences! "Pilot. Dream" contains from the beginning to the end of the multi-layers of enlightened keyboards, interpreted with a lot of subtlety, a jazz fusion chord of good quality will come to complete this very pleasant interlude. To wonder if it's not better without singing ...? "Tension" doesn't offer anything really new with the feeling that we are going around in circles. Here we show off our knowledge and musical abilities without placing structures that really hold up, it all seems superperficial and inconsistent, no fascinating melody to call out to us, nothing that catches our ears, I'll skip my turn ... " Pilot. Conceit "captivates me already more, surely because of the absence of voice which gives free rein to an instrumentation which seems improvised and freed from vocal constraints. A singular jazz rock going all over the place nicely merges with a complete electronic panel and the most modern special effects, despite a short performance, we go up a notch here! "Flywheel" begins with an acoustic guitar and a neo-prog-looking synth moving towards pop and folk sensations, this time supported by a real melody and a song which wanders more easily in this setting. The arrangements are much more coherent and offer better positioned spatial harmonies. "Pilot. Anticipation" is a sunny song with sweet sensations that the BEACH BOYS surely would not have denied. VICTOR GO here gives us the desire to travel to infinity with synthetic and electric instruments imbued with harmonious fullness, but also by an irradiating song that invites us to discover an ideal life that only exists in dreams or in dreams. skies ... it's nice and finely played!

With "2020. Move On" we land on the longest title with an unmistakably progressive approach. Indeed many genres are audible in this score, we can hear some fragments ranging from KING CRIMSON to GENESIS, from YES to PREFAB SPROUT ... again ??? But fortunately this pot contains a well simmered broth, with extremely brilliant keyboards, pieces of guitars with diverse and sparkling expressions. The quiet parts are associated with voices coming straight from paradise, surely angels ....? You can find almost every possible and imaginable style there, constantly scaffolded by avant-garde music ... the rack has just gone up two notches at once! "Pilot. Triumph" is a playful song, built around violins and cherubs positioned in the background accompanying a song resembling a bard pouring out her triumph, while the drummer hits his drums like an erupting KEITH MOON, a bit too sometimes! This harmonious event can easily be incorporated into a compilation for pleasant travel. "Everlasting Quest" is profiled like an atmospheric and futuristic intermission, a guitar interprets some soaring arpeggios accompanied by vocoded voices and special effects reverberating on a cinematic canvas ... this performance will be heard without stopping! This album managed to surprise me happily and conquered me, despite the few weaknesses mentioned above. VICTOR GO deserves his artist name because he alone has achieved the feat of having produced everything from A to Z, having played all the instruments and being at the origin of all the voices ! This work is a complex compendium of paradoxical influences with a unique concept, merging pop with prog music, the two genres blend admirably in an almost natural way with a surprisingly atypical result. Modernism and the use of instruments which are just as modern are the basis of this production. It contains all the symptoms of a joyous radiant intoxication, acting on our neurons almost permanently. We cannot blame VICTOR GO for transmitting the blues to us, because here the music gives the feeling of coming beyond our land borders and suggests to us that the prog is elsewhere and that it must remain positive.