I discovered Robin Taylor's music (only!) last year when I received in my mail the killer "Two-Pack" mini-double CD I ve reviewed on our pages and since then I ve established a relationship with his music and a friendship with him of which I am honored.

If you look in our pages You ll find about dozen albums named Taylor's Free Universe or Taylor's Universe or just Robin Taylor and my aim is to give a feedback to any of his efforts because there are big differences between the different projects.

Anyway now it's the turn of the new born, the fresh explosion (no, not the chewing-gum which gives the fresh air explosion!) of a new Taylor's Universe album "Kind of Red", recorded between August 2011 and January 2012: Brand new!

Starting from the name it just pops up in anybody's brain "Kind of Blue" by the legendary trumpet monster ...do I need to even write the name?

(must confess it's not among my favorites Miles albums..but that's a different story.)!

Can you imagine there is a trumpet among the main instruments? well yes!

Secondly it may recalls to You the legendary King Crimson’s album Red. Do you still imagine there is a distorted guitar among the main instruments? Well yes II! Not that there is any particular relation with these two masterpieces, can be that it’s just a brain scratch that never leaves you when you are familiar with such monsters.

Trumpet+Flugelhorn+Soprano&Tenor Sax + Drums and everything else played by Mr. Taylor (for details just check the artist page on our site!), incredible master of multiinstrumentalism!! Vintage Keyboards , guitars, basses... well You can think it's still nothing if you realize that he has done albums completely alone, among my favs and also reviewed here is the album "November"..but this is another story, part II!

Kind of Red has/is an attempt, it has a thin hided meaning and I think that it is really an "homage" to Miles Davis in fact if you look carefully at the cover-art of the album You ll see a lady with a red coat and with an American flag as scarf...there must be a reason, but a distorted homage with some hardcore genuine progressive influence.

Why should a Danish Marvel of Beauty like Robin Taylor put that picture in his album cover-art if not to give a reference to my burnt mind about USA and that Jazz/Fusion master??

I didn't ask Mr. Taylor about this because I would pay to see his face when he reads me! (haha!!)

When I play Kind of Red I am immediately catapulted into a relaxed, chill, pleasant land where it seems there isn’t anything wrong with this (beep!) world, this is the main difference with Two-Pack I ve reviewed before, the latter more aggressive and angry, the first more gentle and elegant keeping it’s prog soul tho, so often there are little interludes of pure energy.

“Tortugas”, the longest tune of the album, has an awesome progression and represents perfectly the mood of the composer, serious but at same time very careful of never exaggerate or bombard the listener, this can be said about the whole work, so an album of genuine prog-rock mixed with jazz-rock where melodies are fake-simple and absolutely enjoyable by any music lover, You mustn’t be a progressive rock addicted to enjoy Kind of Red that’s for sure but it remains highly recommended if you are an addicted to good music like I am sure you are if you are reading here.

I mean that the work of Sax-Trumpets push your left side into the jazz-rock world while keyboards and guitars push your right side into progressive-rock and at the end the result is like the truth, always in the middle, when you are listening the two bells of a story! (when two people are discussing on a matter and they are giving two completely different versions of the story, You just say that the truth is always in the middle, isn’t it!)

Music really drives You into the most peaceful hour of your day when you play it and this not because the album is slow or mellow, just because the album has a defined structure and the unexpected surprises are weighted and studied.

Complex structure but at the same time easy to get in, easy to establish a line between the melodies and absolutely easy to assimilate. In poor words it flows taking You away, distracting You with positive vibes. Meaning this I don’t want to say that it’s an easy album, to give a visual image it’s not a triangle but it’s a sphere! Thank You Robin!

Kind of Red is like a clear blue sky! (I know it’s a kind of stupid metaphor, but this is the image it gives me).

Kind of Red like you owe a debt to a friend and one day you realize you already paid for it, that makes your day! This is made by this music.

Sound quality is awesome and you ll enjoy this especially with your good headphones!