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Lonny Ziblat Songs from the Drawer Review by Gary Hill This CD is in the progressive rock section of Music Street Journal in part because Lionel Ziblat (or Lonny) is a member of Modest Midget, and that group is prog. However, some of the music here does qualify as progressive rock. Overall the sounds presented here lean between folk and pop rock, but jazz and world sounds also appear. However you slice it, though, this is an entertaining and tasty disc. This review is available in book format (hardcover and paperback) in Music Street Journal: 2011 Volume 4 at lulu.com/strangesound.

Track by Track Review

How Far Is Leiden? Starting with an almost Spanish guitar approach, keyboards come over the top. Then a jazz vocal line appears driving the song forward. This calls to mind the Beatles a bit. It has a folk rock element to the guitar and the keyboards layer some prog on the works. There’s a cool strings and vocals movement later that is very Beatles-like. A lot of jazz is built into this, but the keyboards are more progressive rock oriented.

The Ska Is The Limit This short instrumental is one hundred percent progressive rock. There’s a lot of Frank Zappa built into it. It’s got some world music sounds, too. It’s a great tune.

Funny Honey Folk music, The Beatles and psychedelia all emerge on this playful little number.

If I Were A Tree There is a lot of folk music on this one. The vocals at times call to mind The Beach Boys. This is gentle and fun.

My Little Quality Piano leads off in a moody fashion. A keyboard solo this has some dissonance built in and is quite intricate.

Tomorrow One of my favorite cuts on show here, this has some of that Beatles element to it. It’s catchy and quite tasty and yet, there’s still some serious prog at points. This is very much like something you might have heard on the radio in the 1970s. There’s a cool retro keyboard solo on this.

Promise Acoustic guitar presents the backdrop here. There’s a Latin element early, but it also takes on some jazz-like sounds. Overall, though, this is another that feels rather Beatles-like.

Black Hill A more energized number, this has a lot of pop music built into it, and a lot of Beatles-like sounds, but it’s also got some of the more direct progressive rock sound on the disc, too. It wanders out into pure space near the end.

The Shadow of My Day While there’s still pop on show here, this is very much a progressive rock tune. Parts of it call to mind Yes, but perhaps the biggest reference would be something like The Flower Kings.

Walter Your Pants Here is another pretty and intricate keyboard solo.

How Much Latin music and folk sound merge on this cool tune. It has some Beatles built in later and also includes some hints of space rock.

Stel Another cut that’s drawn from the same musical territory as much of the music on the rest of the CD, this is basically a folk music kind of approach. The lyrics are in Dutch.

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