COMING BACK TO LIVE

What an amazing progress this Dutch symphonic prog band has made! I remember their debut CD entitled Touch Wood (2004) and noticed their potention but it sounded a bit too tame. Their next studio album (2005) showed more mature compositions but on this live 2- CD you will hear that Mangrove is 'live' at its best!

The ten compositions on the 2-CD's sound tasteful, melodic, accessible and contain lots of fluent shifting moods, from dreamy to mid-tempo and from a slow rhythm to bombastic eruptions. The keyboard work has strong echoes from Tony Banks (70-77 Genesis) featuring excellent choir-Mellotron samples (like Afterglow on Seconds Out by Genesis), strong Hammond waves, some Fender Rhodes piano runs en many synthesizer flights (often Banks his known ARP Pro Solist sound). Especially the long and alternating track Wizard Of Tunes is loaded with a great keyboard sound (wonderful classical orchestrations and majestic choir-Mellotron), the interplay with the guitar is very pleasant and I was carried away during the final part, how compelling. Also the 'grand finale' on City Of Darkness was goose bumps with howling electric guitar and bombastic synthesizer work, this is 'progheaven'!Remarkable is the King Crimson climate (Red-era) in Facing The Sunset with a dark and ominous sound but in general Mangrove plays with obvious echoes from mid-Genesis and some early Marillion. Other fine tracks are the 'epics' on CD-2 I Fear The Day (wonderful Mellotron sound) and the final song Hidden Dreams (moving electric guitar play and great choir-Mellotron).

On this live 2-CD Dutch symphonic prog band Mangrove has prooved to be a very pleasant option for those progheads who love mid-Genesis and early Marillion!