TAÏ PHONG

This progrock band is a French-Vietnamese collaboration that made three albums. On this eponymous debut record Tai Phong manages to create a lush and sometimes compelling traditional symphonic rock sound, very melodic and pleasant to hear. The bombastic keyboard work reminds me of Woolly Wolstenholme (Barclay James Harvest) and Manfred Wieczorke (Jane and Eloy). The varied, often fiery guitar play (with a bluesy undertone) and the emotional, high pitched vocals give the music from Tai Phong an original flavor. My highlights are "For years and years" with some great breaks and the wonderful "Field of gold" featuring Hackett-like guitar and halfway moving keyboards and howling electric guitar, this is our beloved music as it is meant to be! Their second album was more acoustic oriented and their third (and final) a bit too polished for me. I prefer this beautiful first one, my rating is 3 stars, comfortably between the two and five stars from fellow reviewers.