VELVET THUNDER

The music of Norwegian band The Windmill is grounded in prog and, while their influences are usually clear to see .. Tull, Camel, Genesis, etc .. they’re not a wholly derivative band because they’re not easy to categorise. Mindscapes, the band’s fourth release, consists of only four tracks and running to around 42 minutes, but the quality is noticeable right the way through. There’s a strong sense of melody in the music they perform, the instrumentation is excellent and it’s well-produced.

It takes considerable chutzpah to start any new album with a track running to almost twenty three minutes … though Neal Morse makes a habit of it … but the band clearly knows its audience because this is what is offered as an opening track, and they do it in style. Fear is mostly a mid-paced track, starting slowly though, after about seven minutes, they show they tend not to stay with the one melody for too long because, as the tune progresses, they start with all the changing time and tempos they utilise to good effect, though they don’t overcomplicate for its own sake. The flute evokes thoughts of Jethro Tull while the backing has a mid-seventies Genesis feel, and the low key sax adds a touch of class. For a lengthy piece, the soloing is kept to a minimum, with the band playing as a unit.

Following Fear, Calton Hill is a more straightforward rock song, with a fine sounding old school organ sound it would’ve been great to hear more of, with a touch of sax included. I Still Care begins with a delicate piano intro and is a power ballad with a touch of airy, bucolic sounding sax and flute meandering, reminiscent of Jimmy Hastings’ work with Caravan.

Nothing In Return begins like it’s an outtake from Jethro Tull’s latest album, RokFlot, with the same flute-guitar patterns, and becomes quite heavy in the middle with punchy rousing guitar riffs, some Tull-like flute added with some manic synth sounds as the band fully stretches out, playing a tad more upbeat, almost aggressively so in a few places.

The music on Mindscapes is rooted in ’70s prog but not detrimentally so, and all the songs are well constructed, while not being laboriously over-elaborated. However, whether this album will bring the band to the attention of the wider prog audience is a moot point.