Doctor Wilde's Twilight Adventure is the new album of German proggers Argos. They consist of Thomas Klarmann (bass, flute, keyboards, guitar, vocals), Robert Gozon (lead vocals, keyboards), Bogáti-Bokor Ákos (guitars) and Ulf Jacobs (drums). On the album they got some help from Alexei Tolpygo on violins, Marek Arnold on wind instruments and Martin Foye on drums. Doctor Wilde's Twilight Adventure is a concept album and after a couple of spins I can say that I am not really impressed by this rather weird album. The music is a strange mix of symphonic arrangements, jazzy passages, rock-driven sections, and piano-led moments. Argos is obviously influenced by bands like Van der Graaf Generator, Gentle Giant and the so-called Canterbury music scene and I must admit that this is not really my musical cup of tea indeed. Many tracks also feature saxophone solos and passages and the saxophone is not really my favourite instrument to listen to, especially in prog rock music. Strange song titles like A Doctor, Strangely Strange, A Farthing As Reward or The Enter Bends set the tone for the lyrics and the concept of this album. The opening track is a piano-led arrangement with lots of rather monotonous vocals, while Under The Influence is almost a pure jazz song with too much saxophone indeed. Aural Surgery is an instrumental song, and it almost sounds like a Steely Dan song, while the longest track, being Moytura House, is definitely the best of the rest, a prog rock song with lots of diversity and musical craftsmanship indeed. Overall, this is an album that will not end up remarkably high in my top ten list of best albums of 2026 as I kind of don't really get the drift of Doctor Wilde's Twilight Adventure.... This is in contrast to their previous album Halfway Between Heaven And Mirth (2024, see review), which I also reviewed and highly recommended! Because Argos "delivered" a fine neo-prog style album with this release! *** Martien Koolen (edited by Tracy van Os van den Abeelen) Where to buy? |
