Mindscapes is the fourth album of the Norwegian neo-prog rockers of The Windmill, a band that was founded in 2001 and their sound is no doubt influenced by bands like Alquin, Camel, Jethro Tull, and Flamborough Head. Windmill consists of Erik Borgen (vocals, guitars), Arnfinn Isaksen (bass guitar), Stig Andre Clason (guitars), Morten Clason (flute, saxophone) and Kristoffer Utby (drums) and Mindscapes only features four tracks, making this the shortest Windmill album so far. Mindscapes' opening track is a true epic one, clocking in over twenty-two minutes, and for me this song is at least a couple of minutes TOO long as the track "rambles" on way too long. Fear features a couple of nice guitar passages and solos, some Camel-like passages, lots of flute (read: too much, at least for me...) passages and solos, piano passages galore, a saxophone solo and lots of vocals indeed! And, sad but true, the vocals of Erik Borgen are just the thing that truly irritate me in the music of The Windmill, as his vocals are utterly monotonous and tiresome; furthermore, he has a kind of weird Norwegian-English accent, which gets on my nerves after a couple of minutes.... Follow up Calton Hill is a mid-tempo song, again with a saxophone solo and, yes, sorry Erik, those monotonous vocals again and I Still Care features "strange" high-pitched vocals, and this track does not really come to life. Last but not least we are treated to Nothing In Return, featuring a Tull-like flute riff, a synthesizer solo and again this song is also too long, making it rather mediocre and even a bit lame. Mindscapes is not really an album that I would recommend as it is not very original - which album is nowadays, you could say - but what bothers me most are the true tedious and boring vocals and the fact that the flute is too dominant in the music of The Windmill. However, there is no account for taste, and this is just my opinion. So maybe you should check this album out if you like Tull and Flamborough Head... **+ Martien Koolen (edited by Tracy van Os van den Abeelen) Where to buy? |
