áMARXE have become one of my favourite record labels, with some fine artists specialising in the jazz fusion end of the progressive rock spectrum.

Tom Penaguin is a French based multi-instrumentalist, and he has recently released his self-titled debut album. He provides us with five original pieces of music, and you can take yourselves over to his Bandcamp page at https://amarxe.bandcamp.com/album/tom-penaguin to find out more, including some detailed explanations of the detail behind the songs which are a fascinating read.

The intriguingly named The Stove Viewpoint Introduction starts us off, a composition of assorted strange household noises with strings, synths, chimes, and a frantic echoed flute and an organ sort of creeping up on you before some nice guitar notes all told from the perspective of that old household tool segue the song into the longest track on the album, the epic length Housefly Leg. This is a celebration of all that is good about this this branch of progressive music, a delightful fourteen plus minutes of music. A bass groove, percussion, intricate guitar work, and organ and keys combining in the opening passage to provide for a complex musical painting which sounds to me a household creature emergency siren, a warning of imminent danger. This sense diminishes when the second movement has a gorgeous extended guitar solo above a calmer backdrop, the bassline particularly melodic and the drum & percussion work pushing matters along nicely, but no longer frantically. Halfway through in the third distinct segment, the lead solo is more prominent, keys and guitar pushing against each other with the pace slowly dimming and dimming, but with a renewed sense of danger. Nine minutes in, the organ and bass combine with a lovely improvisational passage, pretty in its impact. The bass solo is as good an exposition of that instrument you are likely to hear, and the intensity simply builds up to provide for a joyous explosion of noise as we move towards the close, the guitar reasserting itself as the harbinger of news and final impact.

Aborted Long Piece Number 2 is a clever title telling it as it is, an extended piece abandoned. I have embedded it below, a sort of chamber jazz piece, another joy to the ears of fans of dextrous bass guitar work especially. This is the type of track I can imagine sitting down in a theatre back in the day watching an old silent movie drama. It has the bass groove of 2024, of that there is no doubt and marvel at the intensity of the final third before a pretty chord moves us into Arrival of the Great Hedgehog, a track which is only just shy of epic length, and what a title, reminding one of those halcyon days of the 1970’s when a Hogweed could be called a Giant, and no messing! Musically, the beginning is chamber progressive rock and you close your eyes and see yourself in a chapel with the ceremony washing over you, some of the keys quite beautiful and the bass once again taking you by the scruff of the neck and forcing you to admire. A third of the way in, the guitar announces itself and takes over proceedings in an extended jam, all the while the urgent organ single notes announcing the plodding steps of the eponymous creature approaching the house. Penaguin here really does announce himself to the progressive world as a musician to be seriously reckoned with, because the guitar work is exceptional, whilst the undertones are urgent and demand your competing attention, the whole piece building to a very strong conclusion – jazz fusion rock at its very best, as good as it gets.

Stoves bookmark the album, the closer being the imaginatively titled The Stove Packed Up and Left (and who can blame it?). I have embedded this track below. The organ is prominent, the guitar work is again intricate, whilst the bass guitar simply takes my breath away. This is a sunny and breezy track, perfect listening for Spring washing away the cold and damp of winter, no need for said stove to warm the bones, and the moods it creates are intense, a pastoral fusion wonderland, Penaguin really getting that “experimental” doesn’t have to be unlistenable. It closes with the birds heralding the season of life, overcoming that of death.

This is a very good album. It is alive, it is extremely well performed and produced, and in my opinion announces Penaguin as an important artist for our times. I can’t wait to see what he produces next – it may well blow your wig away.