You can trust Louder Our experienced team has worked for some of the biggest brands in music. From testing headphones to reviewing albums, our experts aim to create reviews you can trust. Find out more about how we review.
Hailing from the south coast of England, Diagonal attracted mouthwatering reviews of a self-titled debut album that’s now four years old. A heady brew of swirling psychedelic and progressive sounds overlain by the type of excesses only encouraged by the jazz-rock fraternity, Diagonal doffed its elaborately feathered cap at Van der Graaf Generator, King Crimson and Camel.
Lineup changes have silenced the band for quite a while, but here they are again in equally off-the-wall yet slightly alternate form. The Second Mechanism is much lighter on the Mellotron and neo-prog influences, favouring a tougher, far jazzier approach, but vocals are conspicuous by their absence until track four, Hulks, which arrives more than 25 minutes into proceedings.
Certain offerings such as overtly Middle-Eastern-flavoured These Yellow Sands don’t require any such form of commentary or explanation, but given the amount of improvisation that’s going on, a casual listener would almost certainly find the rest of this album just too impenetrable.
