By: M.J. Brady
he Colin Mandel Group are quite an adventurous combination of Fusion, Progressive rock, RIO, ambiance, quirk and mirth, they can include these elements in the confines of one song, or dedicate any one song to one of these styles, there is even a nice fingerstyle-guitar number("Jeni"), that shows a nice change of pace. Each song is a showcase for Mandel's guitar talents, yet, he his not one to Bogart the stage, opting for tight precision band interplay, yes, he is a virtuoso player, his mastery of many different styles of music are apparent from start to finsih on this CD. I still must emphasize that this is NOT a "guitar player" CD, the styles of many prog bands seem to creep into various songs, at times I can hear Happy The Man, Ken Watson, Hands Echolyn (instrumentation only), and the Dregs. On the jazzy side he can evoke the voices of Metheny, Holdsworth, Stern, showing he has some serious depth in his array of influences. I found this CD to be very enjoyable, each song so very different from the next, with never a dull moment.
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