Vietgrove
The Little Apocrypha
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(Excerpt from track 'The House on Moon Lake')
CD / 8 tracks (plus out-takes) / 78.23 mins

"A Sonick journey in 8 parts" Vietgrove return with a distinctive blend of prog guitar and electronica that is quite unique. 'La Casa Sul Iago Della Luna' begins with lead guitar and rhythm guitar, bass and synth lines which fades into a beautiful choral tapestry into which keyboard emroidery is added and echoed chiming guitars.

The overall sound has a retro lyrical and pastoral feel in places not unlike medieval prog band Gryphon but instead of crumhorns and recorders, Vietgrove use guitars and synths. 'Cydonia' nudges the sound closer to progressive rock with strong lead guitar lines, mellotron and drums. The middle section features some interesting keyboard work before the guitars return only this time with more power and bite before receding into more keyboard work this time reminiscent of early Genesis circa 'Trespass' with some fine soloing and good deployment of light and shade in the finest tradition of prog rock.

By this stage you will know if this is for you. Personally, I like this album mainly because despite the comparisons made to help you build an impression of the music Vietgrove occupy a unique little place in EM/prog and create a warm pastoral, melodic sound and the 'laughably dated and broken down 8 track studio' if anything adds rather than detracts from their vision. Strategic deployment of mellotron such as on the 20 minute opus 'In Nos Aetas Ultima Venit?' and lyrical melodic guitar improvisations push the music deeper into prog country but the synths and keyboards are a vital component of Vietgrove's sound. The fact that key tracks here could easily be used as a soundtrack for a history programme about the Battle of Naseby inspiring images of Olde Englande is encouraged by the language of the sleeve notes describing the music, accurately as electronick / progressive music. 'The House on Moon Lake' is a shorter highly atmospheric piece, in contrast to the more rhythmic and guitar driven 'Felix Culpa'.'The Concerts of the Pleiades' concludes the main set and maintains the standards sets previously and in places surpasses them.

The album then contains various demos and alternative endings to fill up the remaining space on the disc. A highly enjoyable album for those whose tastes cross over into instrumental progressive music and yearn to hear mellotrons, synths and guitars played in a traditionale style harkening back to days of yore when synths had instructions in latin and music was played on black shiny diskes with covers depicting knights of yore battling dragons. Welcome back Vietgrove. (SR)

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