Thieves Kitchen ~ The Water Road

The last few weeks have been very good for British prog. First we had the sensational new album by The Tangent and then just this week I received the new one by Magenta. This is another very strong release. Rob Reed is back to writing long form pieces and these are the best he has done. This is a very powerful album. Christina Booth’s vocals are as impressive as ever and guitarist Chris Fry is excellent.

Now, we have the first new album in over 4 years by Thieves’ Kitchen. This band may not be as well known within prog circles as The Tangent and Magenta, but their new album is just as impressive. Their previous “Shibboleth” was the first to feature new vocalist Amy Darby and was a nice mixture of symphonic prog with a Bruford/National Health fusion feel. This new one has that same NH groove, but with the added bonus of keyboardist Thomas Johnson. Now, he was keyboardist with the legendary Swedish band Anglagard, so this album sees some of those same pastoral textures introduced into the sound with lots of mellotron throughout. In fact the mellotron parts were recorded in Sweden by ex-Anglagard drummer Mattias Olsson. If that wasn’t enough there are some flute parts on the album played by Anna Holmgren who was also a member of…. yes you guessed it Anglagard.

“The Water Road” is a very good album. Mixed and mastered by Rob Aubrey of IQ fame the sound on this is exceptional. Highly recommended. Another great British prog album!