GARDEN ELECTRIC

JUPITER FUNGUS are from Greece and they pay homage to the bands and music of the 70's like DEEP PURPLE, FOCUS and JETHRO TULL. Essentially a duo of vocals/keyboards and flute, they managed to get three more musicians to play on this record making them a five piece. I have the legit cd and I would not know this from the liner information as it shows the five members as part of this band. The guitarist and drummer are from LUCIFER'S CHILD with the guitarist coming from another band I won't even repeat due to my world view. Oh, and this was recorded and mixed by him at his Pentagram Studios.

I like that we get four long tracks with the shortest being just under 10 minutes. This is very much either flute or organ led. So yes, DEEP PURPLE and JETHRO TULL came to mind often. I do not like the flute style as it dances all over the place, fluttering away. I love flute but not in that style. Same with the Hammond, I just have never been a big fan of organ led music like this. The guitarist hardly causes a blip here. The keyboardist adds vocals and they are okay, but often mixed low.

The cover art actually impresses me more than anything I hear. The flautist did this and he clearly has a talent. Such a detailed picture that I have to applaud. It's a little bigger than the cover too, as it expands to the back some. So right from the first spin I knew this would be a challenge. If it was just the flute, or just the organ, but it's both giving me problems. My favourite musician on here is easily the bass player George Papageorgiou. Just love his tone, and how upfront he is. A talent for sure.

I won't describe what I'm hearing here as I would be repeating myself a lot, but I feel this album will get a lot of Prog fans exited who are more into FOCUS and TULL than I am.