Musicians: Roy Keyworth: Electric and Acoustic Guitars Stuart Nicholson: Vocals, lyrics, keyboards Spencer Luckman: Drums, percussion Dean Baker: Keyboards Neil Pepper: Bass Guitar and Lord Lucan impersonation Guests: John Wetton: Vocals and backing vocals – Sarah Quilter: Flute, Saxophone, clarinet and vocals
Released : 23 sept 2002 Label: Avalon Records Total time : 56'03''	Website: www.galahadonline.com Contact:
Tracklist: I. Year Zeroverture 4’45 - II. Belt up 3’47 - III. Ever The Optimist 3’43 - IV. The Charlotte Suite 1’06 - V. Haunted 4’21 - VI. Democracy 9’52 - VII. Baroque And Roll Dementia 2’26 - VIII. A Deep Understanding? 3’51 - IX. The Jazz Suite 1’42 - X. Take A Deep Breath And Hold On Tight 1’35 - XIi. Hindsight 1 – Piano And Clarinet 2’14 - XIii. Hindsight 2 – A Very Clever Guy Indeed 5’40 - XII. The September Suite 3’45 - XIII. World Watching 2’25 - XIV. Deceptive Vistas / Postscript – Perspective 4’44

If you take the word progressive literally, this is the most progressive album I heard in years. This is no longer the Galahad we could catalogue under neo-prog. They merged a lot of styles into one “Galahad style”. There’s nothing really new, it has all been done before, but not on one record.

It’s a very difficult task to review this CD. It takes so many listenings to really get into it and to appreciate it completely. But this is what we really want, isn’t it? We don’t want to buy a CD that we already know after the first time we listen to it. You get your money’s worth of “learning to know it” time.
There’s some (and I quote their press release) jazz, dance, ambient, world, classical, choral music, etc. But don’t be frightened by this variety of music. The different styles are all present in a minor dose. If you don’t like jazz, it doesn’t matter, there’s only a very short amount of jazz.
There’s just a little bit too much electronic sounds (sequencer?) around, but I got used to it after a few times.

The new trend of making a progressive CD in one track seems to go on. Although they claim it’s a one track album, you can switch between fifteen tracks, so there’s no obligation to listen to the CD in its integrity, but you should.

It’s not easy to choose a favourite. The first track is an overture. It sounds a bit like Porcupine Tree mixed with Ozric Tentacles. These names come often to my mind when I listen to this album, but Camel, Marillion, Steve Hackett and even Yes are never far away. I like the double track “Hindsight” 1 & 2 very much. The first part is a piece of piano and clarinet played in a very classical way. The second part builds further on the same melody line and chords with some splendid vocals. The acoustic guitar solo flows brilliantly into an electric guitar solo, that points in the direction of Steve Hackett. There are some CSN&Y’s “Déjà vu” influences in the vocal harmonies.
The long “Democracy” is the most difficult to get into. It’s an instrumental of almost ten minutes with a lot of electronic sounds, heavier riffs on guitar, classical string sounds, and a lot more. This could well become the best track in the futur, but it needs time and I would like to admire it on a live show first.

There are also a few very short tracks(less then two minutes) and yet they are so to the point that they are as complete as can be.

Stuart Nicholson is a great singer. I wonder why they have asked John Wetton to do some vocals. If you have a singer like Stuart, you don’t need anyone else. In “A Deeper Understanding?”, he sounds like Jon Anderson and in the final song there’s a Peter Nicholls sound in his voice, but for the rest of the time he sounds like Stuart with his own special voice. I can only repeat what the liner notes said on “Nothing Is Written”, “Thanks Marillion, for showing Stu the door”.

Reviewed by: Danny 'Camil' Focke

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Last updated: 03 september 2003 .
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