Mekano

A delightful carnival atmosphere pervades this almost magical piece of instrumental progressive music released in 2001. Originating in Quebec, Miriodor internalize and form their personality out of some of the more challenging aspects of modern progressive music. Incorporating the highly detailed and intricate chops of the Canterbury bands like Hatfield and the North but without the jazzy improvisation; unorthodox chordal phrasing reminiscent of Captian Beefheart but without the atonality, drastic swings in direction and surprising instrumental entrances similar to King Crimson but never taking themselves seriously, yet wholly dedicated to their musical purposes. Drastic time changes and seeming reversals in themes and instrumental balance never seem to interfere with the flow of the melodic structure of the music but rather seem to enhance the effective counterpoint and developing melodic texture of this colorful album. Each and every song flows with an equal depth of brilliance and exploration. Within the straightforward instrumental configuration of guitar, bass, drum, keyboard, saxophone, textured with varying synthesizer, and even violin, they are able to fully develop and explore an almost unlimited palate of ideas and experiments that totally delight and satisfy my taste for daring and probring cerebral music. As long as this band keeps producing masterpieces like this, then the mantle of progressive music will be carried forward with highly original and challenging music.

Look.This is very strange music, partaking of such a wide ranging aesthetic as to almost not make sense. What we've got here is whacked out prog-rock mapped onto a faux-jazzy sensibility filtered through a Downtownish cabaret/calliope vibe. The only thing that comes close, at least in my experience, are labelmates Curlew, although George Cartwright, Curlew's mad genius-leader, comes from the American South, and thus a blooziness not replicated in these proceedings leaks from the pores of any Curlew disc like nervous sweat.Both bands engage in a kind of silly albeit not unattractive fake-deconstructionism. Both bands feature kid-in-a-candy-shop musical curiosity and a knack for congenial aural absurdities, rendering them generally accessibly even at their most outré.Certainly worth checking out for the adventurous listener. Those seeking ear candy should look elsewhere.