• Artist / Title: Diagonal: Diagonal
• Month Reviewed: September 2009
• Format: CD
• Buy:

I first heard of this band via a track on Classic Rock Prog Magazine. I loved it straight away and sought out the album. First things first, this is unashamedly retro, pulling in influences from Pink Floyd (early stuff), Caravan, Black Widow et al. There are 5 songs in all, bringing the CD to a proper album length of 46 minutes. And not a minute is wasted, too. Lovely mellotron, organ, flute and guitars. Superb.

For me, though, the really interesting thing is the vocals. If you listen to records by Fantasy, Gracious, May Blitz, Cressida and what have you, the vocalists tended to have a distinctly earthy sound. Fantastic. Luckily, instead of the album turning into some kind of prog tribute, this band, all young fellows, I believe, have enough musical kung fu and songwriting chops to make it sound brand new – like their own band. If you see what I mean.

Anyway, if you like your prog to sound late sixties to mid seventies, but with a modern clarity of production, this CD is for you. Can’t recommend it highly enough. And it even has phased drums!