ON BLUE

You gotta love when 4 virtually unknown musicians get together and write and record an amazing album all in a basement on a 4 track. With no apparent overdubs, needless mixing or sound reduction, this is pure music to be enjoyed to its fullest and let me say loudest! Wow these guys are amazing musicians and I love the endless frontiers they explore...absolutely mind numbing. This all instrumental album plays right thru with zero dull moments and I must say it is one of the best albums I have heard in a long time. Mahogany Blue mix the vibes of Mogwai with the symphonic prowess of Godspeed and hints and traces of classic prog bands like Pink Floyd and even Kraftwerk. Very authentic music and 100% addictive ! Highly recommended

For their next album Mahogany Frog decided to reduce the length of their recording tracks so this one could get a vinyl pressing.Some tracks in here were recorded in a non-professional level at the time of their writing, others would get a proper recording in the studio.Moreover they had already established their own Mafrogany Hog label (a slight joke with an anagram of their name) and the album was released in 2005.

While the tracks are reasonably shorter to cover the appropriate time allowed by a vinyl issue, the style of the Canadians is still grounded in old-style Prog/Fusion with a special note to the Canterbury school.Especially NATIONAL HEALTH had to have a huger impact to the sound of the band, which is filled with old Canterbury jams, featuring lots of organ, vibraphone and piano interactions, but the modern flavors are always present, as this time the band appears to experiment with the sound of piano, synthesizers and electronics.Moreover the slow tempo parts even have a slight Post Rock touch with ANTIQUE SEEKING NUNS being a good comparison at this point, more particularly the guitars appear to be distorted and more ethereal.The overall style is fairly keyboard-driven with quirky moves and plenty of interesting breaks, characterized by looser performances but also jazzy instrumental battles, while the more experimental stuff has a slight cinematic mood due to the use of loops and distortions.It was hard though for the quartet to escape their vintage influences and the Canterbury tastes appear always in the horizon.

Another very strong effort by Mahogany Frog, albeit a bit more abstract and abnormal than their previous album.Jazzy, keyboard-based, instrumental Prog, which tries nicely to combine recent technologies with nostalgic inspirations.Strongly recommended...3.5 stars.

"Mahogany Frog On Blue" was mostly recorded and mixed in December 04 and March 05 at Czaar Studios and MCM Studios. The biggest change is the length of the album(31 minutes) with this being about half of what the previous two were. All four musicians are multi instrumentalists with a lot of instruments that cross over making them quite flexible in a live setting and in the studio. There's three songs that would be worthy to be included on the previous two albums but this record just doesn't click with me as a whole.

The opener and closer are both 30 something second pieces. "Baroque" is a top three and the first half while good just doesn't compare to when they amp everything up to the end. "Zulumatic" is also a top three opening with drums as the organ joins in. Bass as some canterbury/psychedelic sounds take over and the bass is really upfront. The keys echo and the drumming is active. A high energy tune. The other top three is "... And Soon The Aces Will Ensue" and it's spacey to start before deep sounds in darkness arrive a minute in. The guitar is crying out after 2 1/2 minutes. This is really cool sounding. Headphone music that turns experimental. I just feel 3.5 stars is just right as the other three tracks bring this down a tad.