Short Reviews [Fizbers - 2017 - "First Mind"]

As one may surmise from the album title, this 2017 album was the debut from this Krakow-based trio featuring Dawid Lewandowski (vocals, bass), Dominik Pawlus (keyboards, drums) and Szymon Kubala (guitars). Something I also noted was this album was produced by Ryszard Kramarski, who as well as running the record label is a well-known musician in his own right, both solo and with Millenium, one of the most popular Polish progressive bands. As soon as I started playing this I was transported back in time, as if ever an album is reminiscent of the Nineties neo-prog scene then this is it. From the production, through the vocals and arrangements it is like walking through a time warp. The more I played it, the more names such as Primitive Instinct and Landmarq started popping into my head, along with early Galahad and Pendragon. For the most part this is laid-back prog, with little of the rock part. The band (from looking at the photo in the booklet) are all relatively young, and it could be 1991 all over again. There is quite a concentration on vocals, with piano, keyboards and guitar mostly kept in the background unless there is a solo to be had, and little in the way of complex structure that one would normally expect from the genre. However, there is something in here which shows promise, something about the songs that makes one feel it is worth persevering with. It is a band learning their way, still not sure what they want to achieve, and if this was the Eighties this probably wouldn’t have made it past a demo tape stage, but the sheer naivety of it does provide it an additional edge which is often missing in the highly complex and complicated arrangements which are often de rigeur in prog at times. Interesting and fun if not exactly essential.