TAROT, PART I

1. "The Fool" (5:39) great bass with a bit of a mix of THE BEATLES' "Tomorrow Never Knows" and ALAN PARSONS PROJECT feel with their uses of panned synthesizers, reversed lead guitar, and vocoder, respectively. Once the vocals, drums, and chugging rhythm guitar join in, it becomes more like a psychedelic song from someone like The PRETTY THINGS on S.F. Sorrow or GENESIS' first album or, from the 21st Century, WEST INDIAN GIRL. Very warm and inviting. (8.875/10)

2. "The Wizard" (3:05) male vocal recitation over the spacey opening, but then piano, drums, and bass take us into a more psych-rock motif before switching over to a very NEKTAR-like passage starting at 1:25. This is excellent psychedelia! Too bad it doesn't have more of a "finished" quality to it. (9/10)

3. "The High Priestess" (3:38) dreamy female vocals (many tracks) with some Baroque instrumentation beneath. Very beautiful--and so Sixties-ish! The vocal arrangements could rival anything from THE MAMAS & THE PAPAS, STEELEYE SPAN, or MELLOW CANDLE (or, in the 21st Century, The MEDIÆVAL BÆBES). Eva Muntada's vocal arrangements are amazing! (9.5/10)

4. "The Empress" (3:42) more dreamy, floating vocals over more normal folk-rock-like instrument palette. I am so impressed with Eva's amazingly etheric vocal layering! It's so Siren-like in its calm and ultra-confident allure. Whale-like lead guitar arrives in the third minute. Nice! And thank you, Maddy Gray, for those seductive words to finish! (9.125/10)

5. "The Emperor" (2:52) a little more reminiscent of the band's first album, the rich palette of Fender Rhodes, thick bass, "distant" horn synth, and fuzz guitar make for a wonderfully alluring sound. The spoken voice of Dominic O'Dair fills the pause in the middle with pertinent descriptors and nouns from the lexicon of the Tarot world. (9.125/10)

6. "The Hierophant" (3:21) guest Tony Jagwar's searing sitar soloing over fast-rocking bass and drums and hypnotic floating waves of synths! This reminds me of KULA SHAKER at their absolute best! Xavi Sandoval is the listener's champion: he makes his bass sound and lines so infectious! (9.5/10)

7. "The Lover" (3:21) Mellotron and keyboard bells (and distant flute) make for a very dreamy, Days of Future Passed- like soundscape. Then harpsichord takes over to back the angelic multi-tracked voices of Eva Muntada before the music switches to pure Indian with Didac Ruiz' tabla play and Xavi's sitar. Unexpectedly fragmented but it all works! It is an amazing cross-cultural view of the cosmic phenomenon we call "love"! (9.125/10)

8. "The Chariot" (3:06) more bass-led music that could very well have come from the band's debut album, Xavi, Alejandro, and Eva create a wonderful groove over which wah-ed lead gutar, flute, and organ take turns soloing. I love the flanged drums! Great tune! Xavi's electric guitar really cooks in that 30 seconds! This one reminds me very much of something from Devonshire band MAGIC BUS. (9.25/10)

9. "The Justice" (4:56) Xavi's great bass, front and center, seducing us from his first notes, with reverbed drums and piano and dreamy 1960s flute open this one before Eva's balmy vocals--in a lower register--come in to sing us her folk wisdom. Great pop-jazziness to this one. Should/could be a hit! Eva's Mellotron and Xavi's heavily-effected chorused lead guitar come in with about a minute to go but it's 'tron and flute that take us to the end fade. Wow! A perfect song! (10/10)

10. "The Hermit" (3:11) floating strummed guitar chords with matching lead guitar notes and Mellotron male voices open this instrumental like some kind of Steve Hackett impressionistic piece. More vocals and heavily-flanged cymbal play join in during the second half. Great atmosphere with a very mystical result. (8.875/10)

11. "The Wheel of Fortune" (4:21) lightly-flanged 12-string pickings for an intro before the music shifts into a psychedelic pop waltz with Glenn Brigman's dreamy DONOVAN-like flanged voice singing. It's so Sixties dreamy Psychedelic Pop! Masterful! Even the rising chord progression that carries the song has something magically mind- altering to it! Absolutely, astonishingly wonderful! (9.5/10)

Total Time 41:12

The band has definitely chosen to proceed down the more space/psychedelic form of Canterbury that Daevid Allen, Steve Hillage, Pierre Moerlin, and Gillie Smyth travelled over their careers--maybe even moreso! I have to agree with fellow reviewers that this is one of the finest collections of Neo-1960s-Psychedelia that I've heard--and that it surely qualifies of one of 2024's prog masterpieces!

A/five stars; a minor masterpiece of wonderfully-suggestive Canterbury-tinged Space/Psychedelic prog.

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