It is rare to find such a strong debut album. The French group Taal recorded Mister Green as a quartet. The instrumentation is typical to progressive rock: guitar, keyboards, bass, drums. Particularly well written, the songs hide many surprises, like the bass and drums motif at the of "Barbituricus" lifted from the Nice's "Rondo 69." That piece and "Flat Spectre," two 15-minute chunks, open the album on a gloomy pompous note, something close to Anekdoten-meets-Pink Floyd, with heavy riffs and guitar-hero solos. This is exactly the kind of thing that can kill a young band…except when your guitarist is good. Anthony Gabard stumbles upon a few clichés, but he plays his metalesque solos with such flare the listener has no choice but to approve.

Taal is a French band from Poitiers, which name was Stratus before. Its first album "Mister Green" (2000) happened as a sort of musical earthquake in the current musical panorama! Emphatic keyboards and Pink Floyd's like sound effects, harsh and distorted guitars in the style of King Crimson, an inspiration that goes from neo-classic to circus music, and some musical deliriums reminding of Frank Zappa.
With "Skymind" (2003), Taal brilliantly demonstrates that they can do it again, and even better! From now on enlarged to about ten musicians among which a string quartet, the line-up literally blows the world's mind! This second album re-takes the elements of the first one, but pushes them further, both as far as the themes' complexity and the whirling deliriums are concerned…