Album Details

• Artist: Mahogany Frog
• Album: Do5
• Label: Moon June
• Year of Release: 2008
• ME Rating:
• Reviewed by: patchen on 2008-10-18

With an opening track like "G.M.F.T.P.O," which alternately sounds like Rush and Mahavishnu Orchestra, you might get the sense that with Winnepeg's Mahogany Frog, you will be able to place their influences, but sure as hell won't be able to predict what they will do with them. To wit: the very next song is a Krautrock-ish "T-Tigers & Toasters," that is long on the atmospheric buildup before kicking into majestic, Mascis-like fury. "DO5" is a record full of surprises, deliberate and by happy chance.

So we've got some prog, some punk and some fusion in this lively brew. And brew it does; all the tracks take a bit to simmer before revealing themselves. Rockers ("I Am Not Your Sugar") and more ambient tunes ("Last Stand At Fisher Farm") alike take their time, as if contructed to make the listener sit and expect something cool as payoff-and they deliver.

The kind of Jethro-Tull feel to "Demon Jigging Spoon" doesn't really work in the contexts of the other risks taken on "DO5" and the long intro to "Medicine Missle" only ends up revealing harmonic themes explored for the better on other tracks. No matter. Mahogany Frog have both head and heart, and this fifth release shows a mature, confident band ready to take even more sonic chances down the road.

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