Gayle Ellett & The Electromags release their third album, The Painted River of Light, and the core trio of Ellett (Mellotron, Minimoog, Hammond, Rhodes, Solina, 6 & 12 string guitars, sitar guitar, bouzouki, soundscapes & effects); Mark Cook (bass, 14-string Warr guitar & soundscapes); and Craig Kahn (drums) have provided us with an instrumental progressive rock masterclass, and here is the bit where I get you progheads addicted to epic suites salivating – four tracks, each over ten minutes in length and utterly huge in scope. Hooked? Then, get yourselves over to https://gayleelletttheelectromags.bandcamp.com/album/the-painted-river-of-light for details of how to obtain both the physical copy and digital album.

There is an immersive concept behind this work, namely an imaginary boat ride through a fantastical canyon that follows an otherworldly river of light, and Gayle expands on this by saying it is while the listener feels as if they are high on mushrooms, seeing colours in the water that you have never seen before.

The canyon in question is Topanga, and Ellett has very cleverly, and I think sweetly, taken as the core inspiration his favourite ride as a child at Disneyland, The Jungle Cruise, which critically for the composer was an environment of the Imagineer’s own making. Listening to this takes me back, in fact, in a similar way when I used to imagine riding through the Amazon River or the cosmos, dependent upon what I had read or seen, lying atop my bed. This is the beauty of such music – it takes you places. Also, and I think this is important to place in context, I could quite honestly write a different review every time I listen to this wonderful work, because you hear and pick up something different each time, that canvas being a large one on which to place your interpretation and feeling, not one dimensional, but multi-faceted.

So, the opener The Illuminating Sands of Time, has an official video, and this is embedded below. The mellotron introduces us, that familiar old warhorse of an instrument having lost none of its capacity to provide a dramatic introduction to a major suite of music, and you can draw a straight line from The Moodies to Crimson via Genesis to this in terms of utilisation to full impact. The guitar joins in, and I picture myself at the top of the ravine, preparing to launch myself onward and down, and the collective then burst into a pastoral soundscape, the percussion driving the pace, with some gorgeous guitar work, including an understated sitar guitar adding texture to the key soundscapes, Mark Cook coming into the fray with a delicious bassline, full of jazzy proggy goodness. Halfway through, we get a marked change of mood and pace, with I feel the “official” launch of the ride, wailing guitars competing with fascinating effects as we start our journey, the sitar perhaps representing dancing patterns of light in the water, and as Kahn speaks to us through his skins, it gets hairy at times as well, a rollercoaster of bends and water crashing about us. Contrast that with Ellett’s quite beautiful guitar solo some ten minutes in, where you picture the participant being able to relax because we are entering a less fraught section of the journey, taking it all in, breathing, relaxing, drinking life, the closing notes presaging something more hallucinatory.

Deep Waters Glow Brightly follows, the immersive colours now to the forefront of our minds. Over fourteen minutes of music on this, with more nice use of the mellotron accompanying the effects and a throbbing rhythm section, the basslines, guitar riffs and keyboards having a distinctly experimental effect, sometimes infused with light, at others more dramatic – not dark, as such, but perhaps representing more disturbing images than the “good trip”, whilst other parts are distinctly symphonic, magisterial in the soundscapes produced, maybe surrounded by the high mountains or forests, imposing their will upon you. Halfway through, we get a delightful change of direction, and you are transported back to those heady days of the late 1960’s, flower power, peace & love, The Beatles meeting Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, Banana Splits racing across our screens in a demented fashion. It swirls, it whirls, the sitar is suitably important, the guitar is a psych riff delight, the Minimoog doing its thing, and you are literally taken up, down, sideways, below the surface, seemingly flying above the water. The closing passage is full of noise, voices, repeated riffs before closing with dreamy notes as we come down from the trip. A staggering achievement.

Frequency Modulation. There is a technical description, but we all know and love it as the primary source of radio waves filling our homes and cars with music and chat. There are over 7,000 such stations in the USA alone, and broadcasts have been a huge part of all our lives. So the start where we are turning the dial to find what we want is a loving tribute and treat, before we are treated to a wonderful guitar burst of Americana, the bass and drums keeping the beat and faith then leading the charge into more experimental stuff, heavier and featuring disturbing, dystopian voices, these intermixed with darkly playful notes and effects, some incredibly catchy beats and light notes, swirling interference, classic rock riffs on guitar and Hammond a la Purple, thus providing us with the full range of music and mood you can experience on a journey through that great country. I don’t make political points in my review, so I will limit myself to saying that whether you are a follower of Biden or Trump, it doesn’t matter, because to this casual observer, nothing will ever dampen the indomitable spirit of the American people, and it is this overall that this fantastic song puts across to me.

We close with The Rhodes to Discovery, a wonderful title, and, incidentally, there was a Rhodes department store in Oakland which was originally named Kahn’s (so a lovely link to this band) from the 19th century until 1960, eventually closing in 1980. At 10:31, it is the shortest piece here and opens with a jazz infused delight on the organ and rhythm section, the guitar solo as good a piece of fusion work you will hear all year. I am, by the way, going to play this track on my Progzilla Radio show this forthcoming Saturday (16:00 UK, 08:00 California), so do please join me to listen to this wonderful piece of music, which features Kahn excelling himself on the skins, Cook providing for the jazz enthusiast the bassline to die for, Ellett all along creating his textures and moods before a more blues focussed passage begins, although featuring more of those disturbing voices amidst the staggering guitar solo before the wind whistles around you as the trip comes to a halt.

As with Djam Karet, The Electromags are the very definition of eclectic, and by that, I don’t mean the silly (to me) progressive rock sub-genre on Prog Archives, but in the true sense of the word, pulling together so many strands of influences and styles that, in all honesty, it defies categorisation, and this is what I love about it.

This review has gone through several edits. This is the final one, because with music which provides so much so many times, if I were to write something every time I listen to it, I would review no more in 2025. Now, isn’t that a definition of quality intelligent music we can all hang our hats on?