THREE SIDES TO EVERY STORY

1. "Zigu Zigu" (6:50) instrumental hard rock musings and playfulness. Are Kostas and the Georges secret LED ZEPPELIN wannabes? Who knew! Tight and fun. Weird segue at 4:15 into a kind of laid back (13.25/15)

2. "Notwatch" (14:54) opens with a very engaging blues-rock jam over which Kostas Konstantinidis does some very impressive lead guitar soloing. The chord progression used is so great--so uplifting--soundl ike it came straight out of a UNAKA PRONG song. Near the end of the sixth minute everything empties out for some spacious solo echoed (and effected) jazz guitar play. At 7:00 the lonely guitar is joined by a recording of what sounds like a Persian religious singer. Her song is quite lovely if oddly affixed within the spacey-experimental psychedelic work going on with the guitar and drummer. At 9:38 we open a door to a KING CRIMSON "Lark's Tongue"-like jam that then turns into a heavy DEEP PURPLE-like jam at the eleven-minute mark. Bass man George Filopelou has his breakout moment in the sun while metal power chords and church organ disburse their wares over some impressive At 13:10 another sideroad is taken--this one sounding like a cross between FOCUS "Hocus Pocus" and something by early Led Zeppelin (It's been a long time since I "Rock 'n; Roll"ed). What a wild, unpredictable ride! (26.75/30)

3. "A Christmas Postcard from Kim" (16:46) opening with yet another attempt at LED ZEPPELINness. At 1:35 we change our course into a more contemplative groove--something almost experimental which turns polyrhythmic and then Heavy Metal and Tech Metal HENDRIX. In the fifth minute Kostas launches into some guitar pyrotechnics while the two Georges (as well as Kostas' rhtyhm guitar work) play with their polyrhythms beneath. Very tech metal of them! Operatic female vocalese joins in for the seventh and minutes. I love the contrast between the vocal (and, later, Zeuhlish group chant vocals) over the metal textures! Another spacious divertiment in the middle two minutes with sampled male (and, in the background, female) Arabian voices before reverting back to a more hard-rock palette. Some YES/UK/KING CRIMSON-like time syncopations around the 12-minute mark before settling into a bass-led groove for some weird ("silly") male-acting-the woman vocals strewn about. Again, the experimentations with time signatures and polyrhythms are quite constant and interesting--perhaps the main focus/intent of this song? At 4:35 we fall, once again, into an isolation pit in which we are bathed by cymbal washes for a bit before progressing through the underground passageways with one lone torch providing our light. This last motif is, sadly, the end as the music slowly fades out despite kind of just getting started (and, of course, leaving us to our own devices to try to find ourselves out of the underground. Asie from this little disappointment, this has been a great ride; as usual, very unpredictable. I have to mark this one down a bit precisely for the odd and inexplicable/unjustifiable twists and turns taken just for a postcard. (31/35)

Total Time 38:30

While I love and appreciate the unpredictable experimental nature of these guys' directional choices, the holistic integrity of the compositions are sometimes lacking--or, rather, are unexplained and therefore, often outside my range for empathy and comprehension (though never outside my capacity for appreciation and admiration). The songs on the band's 2016 album, II, at least had purpose and made sense; for these, I feel completely clueless: as if I'm viewing a slideshow of totally random photos--and I so want to be an insider!

B+/4.5 stars; a near-masterpiece of progressive rock music. Kudos to Mother Turtle for keeping it fresh--being unafraid to travel in new directions--to try new things!

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