Mangrove - 27 June 2009
CD-presentation "Beyond Reality"
De Gigant, Apeldoorn, The Netherlands
A couple of days before the release party of the fourth studio album of Dutch progressive rock outfit Mangrove, the world was in a shock caused by the death of Michael Jackson. Almost every TV-channel covered this tragic event. The King of Pop is no longer among us. It is a cliché, yes, I know, but life goes on. Soon everyone proceeds with the order of the day. Personally, I looked forward to Mangrove’s concert held in De Gigant in their hometown Apeldoorn. It was rather hot in that venue. The temperature almost rose to thirty degrees Celsius. However, that was no problem for the musicians. They just wanted to give the audience a perfect live show.
The band’s performance was outstanding and professional. Elements taken from the music of bands as Camel and Genesis melted into a blend many musicians can only dream of. I think Mangrove nowadays belongs to the best live bands in The Netherlands.
I never saw Mangrove giving a bad or even a mediocre concert, but this one at De
Gigant was one of their best ever. The set consisted of a balanced selection of
classic Mangrove-songs taken from their previous albums. Guitarist
Roland van der Horst proved regularly to be
a born entertainer.
When the band started to play I Fear The Day,
he stood in the spotlights at the back of the stage where a small stage was created
in order to show his talents. At the end of the first set, he wandered off
stage and mingled with the audience, still playing his guitar riffs needed for
the track There Must Be Another Way.
I’m not going to mention every song
performed, because they all soothed my ears, but I will make an exception for
Wizard Of Tunes.
After the acoustic intro, specially made for this occasion, it
was not easy for me to stand still. Wow! What a song! In my opinion, this track
belongs to the highlights in the history of Dutch progressive rock music. 
After a short break, Mangrove
appeared for the second set consisting of the integral performance of their
latest studio album Beyond Reality. In
the meantime, they changed clothes and were now dressed in a professional white
outfit (during the first set they were dressed in black). Again, Roland began
on his acoustic guitar with the intro of
Daydreamer’s Nightmare. While
the concert continued, I realized that Mangrove recorded a fantastic new album.
All those years of working together resulted in a top-notch album of a supreme quality.
Maybe the compositions are not always original, but who cares!
The end of
Time Will Tell, for instance, sounded
very much like Pink Floyd’s
Echoes, but I loved it anyway!
The keyboard sounds produced by Chris Jonker
made my heart beat faster. His mellotron sound samples and great
synthesizer solos were just excellent! During the intro of
Reality Fades,
you could hear the sound of church bells ringing done by drummer
Joost Hagemeijer. Therefore, he used a
special device of Roland Instruments. Joost also took care of the backing
vocals and sometimes he did the lead vocals as well. However, I got most goose
bumps of the fantastic melodic guitar solos that led to several climaxes, especially
during the last track of the second set.
It seemed that the eponymous track was
the final piece of the second set, because of the grand finale at the end, but
fortunately, there was one track left to perform.
Voyager was the cream on the already tasty
Beyond Reality cake.
Henri Strik (edited by Peter Willemsen)
"Beyond Reality" album review
