“Return to Mingulay” by AJB’s Oceans 5

‘Return to Mingulay’.

What an album.

I feel like I’m being a little biased towards it, considering I was involved in its creation. On the other hand, I think I can objective about the album as a whole. Some may not consider it strictly prog. And they’d be right. It is not. It’s not prog folk either.

Return to Mingulay is a sum of hundreds of influences, experiences and approaches. Masterly produced by Colin Tench, Oceans 5 created an album worthy of passing the test of time. It is, truly, an ageless album. You could’ve listened to it in the 70s, or the 2010s, and it doesn’t get old, boring. It’s the exact same opposite. Each time I listen to it, I like it more and more. It’s an album meant to STAY.

It’s not easy to have people from all over the world, all with different approaches to music, different creative processes and different mindsets, but they made it work. Everyone contributed to the album’s excellence:

• Andy John Bradford is a superb songwriter and a truly passionate vocalist;
• Stef Flaming from Murky Red is probably the “rockiest” of the bunch, and really adds that rocky heaviness to each track;
• Victor Tassone from Unified Past and Marco Chiappini from Gandalf’s Project are the responsables of the album’s prog sound, each on its own instrument. Victor has a natural sense of dynamics & dramatics and his drumming style really shows, while Marco is a fabulous arranger and has a special sensibilty about his keyboard playing. Beautiful Mellotron melodies and haunting atmospheric textures. Delightful.
• And then you have Colin Tench. One of the busiest guys in prog today. He may not like it, he may not acknowledge it, but the guy is a genius. Not only on his guitar ability, which is unquestionable, but on the producing and mixing job. Producing an album like this is one hell of a job, and Colin made it work.

And then you have Lorelei McBroom, one of the world’s greatest vocalist. There’s nothing else I could say about her that hasn’t been said for the past 20 years. She’s simply amazing, and one of the nicest persons you’ll ever meet. It was truly a team effort. Everyone contributed, everyone helped, everyone was at the top of their game. Everyone really knows their craft, and it shows. There isn’t one weak song on this album, and that’s something incredibly hard to achieve. Everything was carefully handcrafted.

While I have a soft spot for the two tracks I played on, “Five O’ Clock Line’, “Invictus Captain of my Soul”, and “Mingulay Boatsong” are absolute masterpieces.

I was asked by Colin Tench and Andy John Bradford himself to add grand piano to ‘Fly Away’ and then an orchestral background to support Andy’s and Lorelei’s vocals on ‘6000 Friends’.

Looking back, I can’t say anything else than thank you for letting me be a part of this album, and the most important thing, I would STILL love it even if I wasn’t on it.