Artist: Magenta
Title: Home (Special Edition 2 Disc)
Genre: Progressive Rock
Label: F2 Music
Magenta's Website

Magenta reminds me of one my favorite progressive rock bands, Mostly Autumn. They have a great female lead singer backed by fine musicianship. Christina Booth leads the band with her warm dreamy vocals and every track comes delivered to your ears via the tasteful guitar work of Martin Rosser, Chris Fry, and the many instruments manned by Rob Reed. Reed plays bass, guitar, piano, and mandolin to name a few select pieces of equipment. He is a versatile gent if I do say so myself. On the bottom end, Allan Mason-Jones sits behind the drum kit whilst Dan Fry keeps good time with his battery mate on bass. This is the core group. There are many other key contributors to this project that help to shape the sound as well (see credits).

Magenta’s music is appealing yet effective, not always aggressive, but it invites you to jump in and become engrossed in the entire package. Home offers an array of very well thought out and played music that demonstrates each member’s adeptness with each instrument. This is prog-rock after all so it’s not cut and dried, it never is. This is the special edition with a five-track bonus disc titled New York Suite. The bonus disc turns out to be just as solid as the main disc in the set; it has a strong group of tracks.

It’s a bit tough to single out favorites when you enjoy an entire set so completely, so let me just say that there is not a bad cut on this album. I heard nothing worth offering any objective criticism over. All the elements are in place here-good guitar, excellent vocals that tell the story well, keyboards that provide a nice bed of atmosphere for the rest of the instruments and most importantly, know exactly when to come in and build a bridge that leads to another time, place, and tempo in a composition. It all comes together quite nicely and as a listener, I could not ask for more. Magenta has perfected their presentation and sound in a most impressive way.

Prog-Rock can be a very difficult genre to make an impression and get the attention you deserve; it is a worldwide community but very small in comparison to other more popular styles of music. I have to say that these tracks are some of the best I have heard to date on a progressive rock release. I have heard my share as I always do so that is significant from my own perspective. Other than rock, prog is my first choice when I listen to music. So a job well done Magenta, you got my attention and made me a believer. So now, you have a new fan that will look forward to subsequent releases.

© Keith "MuzikMan" Hannaleck

Disc One

01. This Life (2:30)
02. Hurt (5:35)
03. Moving On (6:02)
04. My Home Town (Far Away) (3:56)
05. Brave New Land (1:02)
06. The Journey (6:21)
07. Towers of Hope (2:10)
08. Demons (5:16)
09. Morning Sunlight (2.43)
10. Joe (11:14)
11. A Dream (1:11)
12. The Visionary (6:00)
13. Journey’s End (7:41)
14. The Travellers Lament (1:15)
15. Home (4:13)

Disc Two

New York Suite

1. Arrival (10:58)
2. Home From Home (8:09)
3. White Lies (8:43)
4.T ruth (10:53)
5. This Life (Reprise) (1:21)

Credits:

Rob Reed: Keyboards, Bass, Guitars, Backing Vocals, Recorder, Tambourine, Grand Piano, Mandolin, Acoustic Guitar
Christina Booth: Lead Vocals
Chris Fry: Lead Guitar
Martin Rosser: Lead Guitar
Dan Fry: Bass
Allan Mason-Jones: Drums
Guests: Tim Robinson: Drums
Martin Shellard: Guitar
Lee Goodall: Tenor Saxophone
Hywel Maggs: Guitar
Christian Philips: Guitar, Backing Vocals
Troy Donockley: Uilleann Pipes, Whistles
Mal Pope: Backing Vocals
Lorrain King: Backing Vocals