Album of the Day

Volume One, by Mastermind (1990): Imagine an alternate prog history in which Carl Palmer and Greg Lake teamed up with Jimi Hendrix instead of Keith Emerson and Bob Moog hooked his first synthesizer up to a guitar instead of a keyboard. Had that happened, the result would sound a lot like Mastermind. Mastermind is driven by guitarist Bill Berends, who adds to his hard rock axework with seamless guitar synth interludes. The result is very very ELPish, particularly the closing epic, "War Machine." The real oddity in the wall-to-wall aggressive prog is "Long Distance Love Affair," a synth-pop love song that, as one local review I read back in 1996 said, "must be heard to be believed."

NOTE: The version of Volume One reviewed at Ground and Sky is apparently the 1996 re-release and contains two more tracks than the original 1990 version I've got.