DANCE OF THE FLAMES

Guru Guru

Krautrock

3.75 | 85 ratings

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Sinusoid
Prog Reviewer

The flames mount the inner dance.

My knowledge of this outfit is limited to this album and HINTEN, an earlier release by them that is more psychedelic and Krautrock. There are a couple of Krautrock sounding tunes here, but the album mainly caters to either world music or Mahavishnu Orchestra-isms. Each individual member has skill, particularly the guitarist that sounds like MacLaughlin's shadow, and for the most part, DANCE OF THE FLAMES comes together well compositionally.

The only worded vocal tracks are the first two, and they are the ones that are the most Krautrock sounding. ''Dagobert Duck'' (Scrooge McDuck?) has a nice jam at the end in case you lost focus earlier. Other acoustic tracks like ''Rallulli'' add that quiet dimension to the album with, at times, eastern music soundscapes. The depth of style coverage is a nice skill to have, and Guru Guru here thankfully don't go overboard with style jumping; it isn't always the smoothest, but there is evidence of some ironing.

I would say the more memorable tracks are the title track, ''Day of Timestop'' and ''God's Endless Love for Man'' not only because of the fusion flavour, but because guitarist Houschang Nejadepour becomes the Guitar Hero here. I like all of these particular tracks, but I can't shake the idea of calling some of them ''God's Endless Meeting of the Spirits'' or ''Day of Vital Transformation''; the love of that INNER MOUNTING FLAME album is rather obvious on those two tracks.

Given the skill the members have and the variety of styles covered here without going overboard, I could easily see this as a masterpiece of progressive rock. The obvious love for Mahavishnu Orchestra hurts the overall quality of the record, and I will admit the acoustic sections are slightly dry. Ideal for jazz fusion nuts that want to try Krautrock. Try to find the version with the bonus track ''Doing'', one of the best guitar jams out there.

Sinusoid | 4/5 | 2011-4-3

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