ARABS IN ASPIC: Madness And Magic (PROGRESSIVE ROCK): review / opinion to read on Music Waves

Before beginning the review of this new album of Arabs in Aspic, it is necessary to define the two terms: nostalgia is the melancholic regret of a thing, a state, an existence that one has known. As for passéism, it is the most often excessive attachment to the past; it can be said to derive from nostalgia and is a rather pejorative term when it is accompanied by a withdrawal into oneself, even if this attitude is part of the search for a "golden age".

In the field of progressive music, early fans commonly refer to the founding works and groups, the very ones that allowed the movement to blossom in the early seventies. Fifty years later, this revival movement is still alive and regularly gives birth to novelties that most of the time are not really new, by essence confined in their style and of a melodic inspiration too restricted to surprise or move.

"Madness & Magic", proposed by the Norwegian group Arabs In Aspic, is to be classified in this category. This album retains a certain naivety peculiar to the flower power years, especially in the optimistic (medium) vocals, the spatio-cosmic keyboards (those that make bvvzzziiouuuu...) and the theremin's (one of the oldest electronic musical instruments, invented in 1920 by the Russian Lev Sergueïevitch Termen, better known under the name of "Léon Theremin") sound that has been its trademark since the foundation of the band. The shortest pieces ('Lullaby 2', 'Hightech Parent') are confined in a timid pop register and the more consequent titles go around in circles: 'Heaven In Your Eye', with its almost 17 minutes, recycles the same theme by intersecting it with not very imaginative instrumentals.

In spite of its weaknesses, the whole remains melodic and can be listened to rather well, but remains superficial. The novelty here is the percussion (Alessandro Elide is a newcomer) that sprinkle the pieces.

It blows on this "Madness & Magic" a little wind of already heard which brings a perfume of lassitude. And yet we are used to these bands that look back to the past: The Watch or Simon Says who do Genesis-like, Glass Hammer who imitates Yes, or in another sector Greta van Fleet who resurrects Led Zep', etc. But what is missing here is the spark that lights the fuse of emotion, the zest of conviction that carries away the adhesion, the originality that brings surprise. Returning to the past is therefore nothing reprehensible in itself, but this return must not be a retreat. - Official website

ARABS IN ASPIC

MADNESS AND MAGIC

KARISMA RECORDS

PROGRESSIVE ROCK