Undercover
| Date | Label | Catalog # | Comments |
|---|
Marco Bernard
Rickenbacker bass
Kimmo Pörsti
drums
Steve Unruh
vocals, violin and guitars
With
Elina Sipila: Cello
Risto Salmi: Sax
Esa Lehtinen: Flute
Anita Aronen: Bowed Harp
Jaan Jaanson: Guitar
Srdjan Brankovich: Guitar
Thomas Berglund: Guitar
Bogáti-Bokor Ákos: Guitar
Roine Stolt: Guitar
Michael Manring: Bass
Jan-Olof Strandberg: Bass
Zoltan Kolumban: Bass
Jonas Reingold: Bass
David Myers: Piano
Juha Sipila: Keyboards
Richard Marichal: Keyboards
Eduardo Garcia Salueña: Keyboards
Stefano Vicarelli: Keyboards
Guy Le Blanc: Keyboards
Alfio Costa: Mellotron
Jon Davidson: Vocals
Virginia Splendore: Stick
It's clear to me that the members of The Samurai of Prog have been lovers of symphonic progressive rock for quite a while.
Undercover is a two parts project. The first nine tracks consist mostly of cover songs of very well known bands (Genesis, Yes, Elp...), except for a 2 minute piano intro piece, composed and performed by Montreal's David Myers (better known as the "Tony Banks" of the Genesis ultimate tribute band Musical Box and for a number of classical piano cds revisiting Genesis pieces : check out his artist page on ProGGnosis). A great Intro that melds into "The Lamia" from The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway (made famous live by one of Peter Gabriel's outragious costumes) a piece that is pretty much faithfull to the original. The next six tracks give us sometimes pretty faithfull reinterpretations with similar sounding lead vocals but also more adventurous versions (like, for example, The Flower kings' "World of Adventures"). Personnally, I must admit to preferring the versions that move a bit away from the well travelled paths. Still, all the covers on Undercover are excellent and highly enjoyable to listen to. This first part of the album concludes with an original piece "The Promise", that does not pale compared to the great songs that precede it on Undercover . Quite a feat considering these great songs, and this makes me hope that this band will soon put out more original material (hopefully with Mr. Myers involved in some way?). This first half of Undercover clocks at more than 60 minutes and should be considered as a complete album.
The second part of Undercover consists of older original material involving at least some of the main three performers. Nice songs but they feel a bit out of place on the album.
In conclusion, Undercover by The Samurai of Prog should be in any seventies symphonic Prog lovers, and hopefully good album sales will encourage them to put out some new material pretty soon. Highly recommended indeed.
