WINDOWS

I read the guidelines about the "******' ratings and I have examined my favorite types of albums over the years and I still believe this deserves the top rating. Warning: This is my personal preference though and I understand the lower ratings from others about this group/album. From 70's/80's prog France, one tends to think the likes Magma, Pulsar, Catharsis, Dun, Eskaton, etc... And those are all definitely great bands. And then you have band like Tai Phong which came upon me real late. As if to say, "Where has this band been during all my prog-searching years?". I'm a big fan of Eela Craig, Grobschnitt, Sahara, Barclay James Harvest, Nuevo Idea (aka, the "Mr E Jones" album) as well as the non-prog band CSNY. To me, Tai Phong is a blend of all 5 of the above mentioned bands in their style. Extremely melodic (without being sickeningly sweet), floating / airey / breezy keyboards (I hear similarities to Eela Craig's "One Nighter" album) / complex melodic interplay (aka, Sahara's "For all the clowns") and BJH/CSNY like vocal harmonies along with pastoral passages (aka, the last song on Mr. E Jones by Nuovo Idea). Yes, the singer has high pitched vocals at times but they're not a distraction.

All of the songs on this particular album sound quite good and way above average to my ears and together along with the 3 bonus tracks (great pop songs in the italian-prog-like tradition of New Trolls, etc..) make this quite album to have in the collection.

There is really nothing French-sounding about the album as it sounds more in the italian prog genre of the 70's and the british prog of the 70's.

There's not much more to say for me. If you like the above fore-mentioned bands, I can't see you not enjoying this album the way I have been.

The last song "The gulf of knowledge" is fantastic and one of the things I absolutely love about progressive rock. Time changes/melody changes and some melancholically mooving pieces towards the end (similar to my ears as the last 5 minutes in Grobschnitt's Rockpommels Land).

Nothing groundbreaking or original about this group/album. Just very damn enjoying/relaxing to listen to!!!