Customer Reviews

Descending

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2009's Descending is the second CD from Gargamel. It's unusual to see a prog rock band named themselves after a villain from the Smurfs, but there you go. This group hails from Norway, just like White Willow and Wobbler. While White Willow flirts with folk music, and Wobbler is heavily influenced by the '70s British and '90 Swedish prog scene, VdGG seems to be the main influence of Gargamel, meaning you'll never be reminded of the Smurfs listening to this! It pretty much gives it away when you see a photo of Tom Uglebakken in the CD booklet playing a sax and he's wearing a shirt with a stylized upside down triangle, which in reality, was the Van der Graaf Generator logo from the Godbluff-era (the upside down triangle really is the letter "V"). There's even some reminders of King Crimson, early Eloy (even one cut has organ playing similar to Manfred Wieczorke on Inside and Floating) and of the Krautrock scene. "Descending" is much in VdGG territory, with Hammill-like vocals, but I really love the middle part with that early '70s wah-wah guitar, something I hadn't noticed much in recent recordings. "Labyrinth" is really the high-point of this CD, as it starts off in VdGG territory, but as it progresses, it really goes into spacy territory, reminding me of the more "out there" moments of Amon Duul II's Tanz der Leminge with the added on Mellotron choirs. As a matter of fact, this group has a retro approach with no digital or analog modeling synths to be found, with Moog, Hammond organ, electric pianos, and Mellotron. The occasional grungy guitar might bring to mind Anekdoten. The recording of this CD was finished in April 2008, so I am rather bewildered why such a long wait for a release. It's nice to find great new prog that simply amazed me, and Gargamel is one of them. I highly recommend this release, especially for those into VdGG and Crimson.

I got reference of this band via the PROG edition of UK-based CLASSIC ROCK magazine, and I'm pleased to say that my expectations were exceeded once I got a full listen of this album.

This band (and this particular release)can only be tagged as PROGRESSIVE since the whole spirit of good-old prog rock is totally there; long pieces, varied instrumentation and a that familiar feeling of "where-the-hell-did-these-guys-came-from?".

BUT it is only fair to say that although the classic spirit of prog is present during the whole album, GARGAMEL clearly do not attempt to sound like 70's prog bands, as many "new" proggers tend to do; their blend of electric sounds, bombastic percussions and a taste of wind instruments (flute, sax and even a TRUMPET !!!) are not reminiscent of any other bands I've heard before.

Definitely a must-have album for PROGHEADS...I can only hope that more releases from GARGAMEL are yet to come.