The Red Masque "Feathers For Flesh" (Big Balloon Music BBM1102, 2004, CD)

They've come a long way since their somewhat rough debut Death of The Red Masque. A long way indeed. Anyone who dismissed that early effort as amateurish and ambitious beyond their abilities only needs to hear this outstanding third full length CD. The four piece fronted by vocalist Lynnette Shelley plays a dizzying array of instrumentation, and delivers an intense workout that defies categorization. At any minute they may be driving out a brutal 70's Crimson like rock, a gentle nearly-pastoral pop, offering quirky and angular outbursts of avant-garde strangeness, or hovering in dark, mysterious gothic spaces often all within the confines of the same track. Of the five cuts on the disc, all but one are lengthy multi-part suites in the 10-15 minute range. We got a preview of one of these ("Beggars & Thieves") on a single released late last year (reviewed in #30). "Passage" encompasses it all, opening with a hard rocking crimsoid tour-de-force before moving into a more delicately balanced section showcasing Shelley's vocals along with acoustic guitars and flute, slowly evolving back out into a more intense sonic disruption again. Shelley's improvisation-backed stream of consciousness at the beginning of "Yellow Are His Opening Eyes" is a bit reminiscent of Jim Morrison's "Horse Latitudes" on Strange Days, though it's not long before the band is rocking again. In all, this is an outstanding release that loudly trumpets The Red Masque's arrival as a world class progressive rock act.

Peter Thelen
Expose Magazine