Wednesday 1 June 2016

Midas - Beyond The Clear Air (1988)


The debut album from this Japanese band who went on to release five studio album between 1988 and 2013. I am not sure if they are still alive.

Midas was a quartet with a lineup of electric violin, synths, bass, drums, piano and vocals.

I reviewed their second album, the 1996 opus Midas II seven years ago for ProgArchives. I really liked that album a lot. Japanese symphonic prog and with a very different sound from their US and European symphonic prog brethren.

Although this is a very different take on symphonic prog than you get from other scenes, it is still unmistaken symphonic prog.

There is some Japanese pop music here too and the electric violin creates a new dimention. There is no denying that this album has an Eastern-Asian feel too. An oriental feel. Very exotic. Very refreshing.

The vocals, these thin falsetto vocals, takes some time to get used to. I got my reservations. The rest of the music is very much my cup of tea and I like it.

There is no real great tracks here. But this one hour long album still provides the listener with a lot of good stuff and melody lines. This is indeed a very fine album from one of Japan's finest ever bands. Check it out.

3 points



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