MYSTERY LOVES COMPANY

Many progheads on Prog Archives were positive about USA progrock band Salem Hill their latest studio effort entitled Mimi's Magical Moment (wonderful alliteration) from 2005 featuring lots of guest musicians including Neal Morse.

This DVD is recorded in 2005, just before the release of that album en Salem Hill played two songs that would appear on Mimi's Magical Moment namely The Joy Jem and The Future Me. The difference between that acclaimed album and this DVD is that Salem Hill plays in the original four piece formation (including two band members on guitar and keyboards and all members on vocals) with the emphasis a bit more on melodic rock than symphonic prog. This resulted in frequent duo-guitar work like in the fluent starter January (sensitive guitar solo), Children Of The Dust (propulsive guitar riffs and dynamic duo-guitar play), Peculiar/So Human (very swinging guitar rock with powerful bass and a pleasant synthesizer solo) and the final track Invisible (fluent with a fiery guitar solo). We can enjoy more variety and more prog elements in the compositions Between The Two (organ intro, flashy synthesizer flights and an atmosphere that ranges from dreamy to mid-tempo with a strong break delivering a heavy guitar solo), The Joy Jem (from mellow to bombastic like the early Kansas sound featuring great keyboard work) and The Judgement (alternating with lots of interesting musical ideas, howling guitar runs and tasteful keyboards, from sparkling piano to slow organ waves). The set also contains an acoustic part with the band members on acoustic guitars, acoustic bass and piano, it sounds beatiful and very warm. The 'bonus features' are an interview and the Salem Hill Acoustic Set surprisingly featuring not four but three band members, one on the toilet? Anyway, the Grand piano play is wonderful.

Altough this DVD delivers less progressive moments than their latest studio-album, you can enjoy the very melodic, accessible and pleasant blend of rock and symphonic prog with hints from Rush (dynamic interplay between guitar, bass and drums), Kansas (keyboards) and Glass Hammer (vocal harmonies and accessible sound). My rating: 3,5 stars.