Three times a charm, as Gayle has sent me his new album with the Electromags, having fully enjoyed and reviewed the two previous (let me not mince words like hamburger) masterpieces! As much as I have a fondness from Djam Karet that goes back a few decades now, this juggernaut project just simply blows my mind, as well as my jaw, and perhaps a few limbs while we are at it. It seems not to suffice having a master guitarist on hand but Gayle regales (pun intended) us with incredible skills on the keyboards, especially on this utterly more intense prog album, where he shines on a variety of keyboards, as well as that grand daddy of all, the one we all know and love: the mellotron! Another pertinent hint that this new recording may be a whopper is clearly defined in having only 4 tracks, time for nothing more than some epic workouts! Bassist Mark Cook also wields his mighty Warr guitar, all fourteen strings creating tumultuous havoc as well as Greg Kahn’s seismic drumming propelling endlessly forward and beyond. So, latch onto the prog dinghy, put your paddles to the liquid and life jackets strapped on, ready for the arguably most insane instrumental prog ride of 2025.

We leave the deserted shore with “The Illuminating Sands of Time”, a dozen minutes of sonic rapture that begins with gargantuan mellotron sweeps that will force you to your knees willingly. As the strokes become steady, the Minimoogs waddle along, the Cook bass propeller carving the astral waves, showcasing a wide variety of sonorities that defy the boundaries of the mundane. Swirling guitar leads, choppy riffs, Hammond organ rivulets and wooden drum oars navigating the cascades with effortless impunity, it’s a musician’s wet dream (no apologies for the pun). Splashily playful, dynamic balanced at all times, never hesitant as if led by an experienced skipper accustomed to the intricacies of Mother Nature’s wildness. Just a spectacular traverse, no bridge over troubled waters to be found.

As if entering a polar fjord, the icy “Deep Waters Glow Brightly” is another astonishing sonic revelation, an overt perception of grandiose currents swerving beyond floating icebergs, the bass particularly active setting the course. The glacial electric guitar slices through the frost with nearly Frippian precision, the mellotron howling like an arctic gale. The choir patch is particularly stimulating, evoking the grandeur of the abyss as if plunging into the deep trenches would provide a heightened adventure. It does and its beautiful. There is an almost Vangelis feel to the first half of this piece, but when the eloquent guitar rages up a storm and the rough Hammond organ gets hot and sweaty, the mood switches to an underwater Booker T and the MGs’ inspired American jazz-rock/funk maelstrom that will torpedo anything in sight and leave any abandoned ship wreckage to ‘glow brightly’.  A masterclass in sound and fury.

Can this get any better, you may ask? Well, “Frequency Modulation” should do the trick, as it alters the cadence enough to make one shudder in disbelief, with broadband radio snippets shuffling through the various stations before settling into a mammoth spectrum of fiery instrumental grooves, the three players letting loose their innermost fantasies. Kahn drums like a lumberjack madman on a mission, logging in mighty shifts, while Cook throttles in the lower realms, leaving Gayle to chainsaw his way through the Amazonian jungle. Extended Hammond organ usage, the colossus of Rhodes e-piano twinkling deeply and serious Solina synthesizers combine with that suave fretboard proficiency that can duel with the very best out there, at times even daring to venture into Holdsworthian territory!  The blurring radio does mention the recent event in California, where Gayle’s Topenga Canyon home was spared destruction by fire.

As the title cleverly indicates, if you are fan of the electric piano as I am, “The Rhodes to Discovery” will satisfy your past urges, current pleas and future hopes for many years. Its a whirlwind sonic festival on the scale of Brian Auger, Herbie Hancock, Joe Zawinul etc…which also incorporates stinging bouzouki-like notes, thick and supple drum beats and curvaceous basslines. The journey has pace, tempo and mood down pat, a supple elastic of musical genius that should be heard and then listened to over and over, a wordless melodious clinic. A Colossus of Rhodes was once among the seven wonders of the ancient world, it was destroyed in 653 by the Umayyad caliphate but resurrected in the 20th century as a prestigious musical instrument. Justice duly served.

If you are desperately searching for first class instrumental prowess that combines the explorative histories of prog’s early days but with a contemporary sense that pleases the ear to no end, just ask Gayle to send you some Electromags.

5 visions of emeralds