Machiavel

Those of you / us who think that Prog was a phenomenon that was limited to British and a few Italian bands have been disabused by re-issues from Holland and France on the Esoteric label in the last couple of years and now we have some material from Belgium’s finest Prog band Machiavel and it really is pretty good stuff.
They combine influences from all over – as you might expect from a Belgian outfit – but the end result is pretty satisfying and there is enough here to suggest a band that was both musically capable and understanding of the direction their audience wanted to go.

‘Jester’ was their second release and they were already beginning to use electronic sounds alongside the more symphonic elements of their music – the opening track ‘Wisdom’ begins with electronic skitterings before a metronomic bassline and howling guitar announce a piece that builds into a cross between Genesis/Floyd and Van Der Graf Generator – bear in mind that this was originally released the same year that Floyd released ‘The Wall’ and you can understand where music was at that time and how difficult to have a truly individual voice in music.
‘Moments’ shows a more purely melodic side of the bands nature with a pice that features harpsichord and flutes as well as lyrics like “There is behind my prayer of song some crumbs of life which are frosted in the ante-room of suicide”: even when the music shows a light side they are still dark and brooding.

The next album ‘Mechanical Moonbeams’ takes them further into the realms of classic Prog with mellotrons and guitars ranged alongside each other and rhythms and tempos ebbing and flowing. They were beginning to use electric piano to great effect as well and this album has much of the best playing that this talented crew were capable of.
‘Summon Up Your Strength’ has a wonderful growth from a small and strained beginning through a piano passage into a full-on rocker with that electric piano keeping the melody going. This is very reminiscent of Supertramp but actually precedes ‘Crime Of The Century’ by around a year – hmmm.

I must admit that I was sceptical about this at first but the music is so good and the emotions and intellect so honest that I am won over – yes the Belgians can rock and you should add Machiavel to that famous short list of famous Belgians; just bear in mind that these guys were real!