It's all about the gear. Norwegian keyboard wizard and Supersilent founder member Ståle Storløkken is clearly harbouring a major fetish for the kind of analogue kit popular in rock from the late 1960s through to the mid-1970s. Here, he puts them to excellent use recreating the sound of prog, in all its glorious bombast – from the creakily dramatic ersatz strings of the mellotron to the thickest, chunkiest Hammond organ available anywhere in the 21st century, with a sprinkling of cosmic synth whooshes and twinkles à la Popol Vuh thrown in for good measure. Bassist Nikolai Hængsle and drummer Torstein Lofthus provide enough drive and swing to make this classic power-trio material with more than a passing nod to The Nice and early ELP. To their credit, Elephant9 manage to access some of the grandiosity and excess of, say, Focus's side-long jam ‘Anonymous II’ and distil it down to accessible, five or six-minute chunks that never out-stay their welcome. Shamelessly retro? Sure. Massively fun? Hell yeah.