Trojan Horse - World Turned Upside Down

I first became aware of Trojan Horse’s music back on Prog Rock Deep Cuts with Ian Beabout and just being completely blown away by what I was hearing. They are a quartet from Salford that feature the Duke brothers and drummer Richard Guy Crawford. This is their second album released on the Bad Elephant Music label entitled World Turned Upside Down which was release last year.

And it’s a real mind-blowing experience from start to finish with unexpected results that will have you on the edge of your seat where the quartet takes the music of ‘70s Progressive Rock and Post-Punk into one giant blender. Mixing the elements of XTC, The Mars Volta, King Crimson, Robert Wyatt, Tears for Fears, and a little dosage of the Zappa twist and Gong thrown in.

The opening instrumental track, Juraspsyche Park is a real kicker to start things off. Beginning with a reminiscent of Gong’s Oily Way with a thunderous guitar-like roar and the switching of the time signatures, it gives Trojan Horse a chance to have some fun on vocalizations and swirl Organ-like solos that touches the King Crimson plateau in the styles of The Sailor’s Tale as if it continued where it left off for the quartet along with Kavus Torabi who guest appears on the album to reach the jump for light speed.

The ominous spacey rocked-out ascending adventures of Sesame, has this mixture between Amon Duul II and Starcastle while they pay tribute to the Cardiacs in this wacky and intense sinister increasing elemental vibrations featuring the Mellotron and effects filling the halls of insanity from percussions and voices, organ through the Scuttle. Trojan Horse also carries the waltz melodies in their music which gives it a real jolt which is shown on here for the last two minutes.

Waltz’s show the band on what to expect. The title track has a melodic ballad, but with a twist of the relaxing elements thrown in the styles of Sweden’s own Pugh Rogefeldt as the haunting folk of Death and the Mad Queen, fits in the atmospheres of the Lewis Carroll stories and touches of the Pretty Things S.F. Sorrow-era. But the 11-minute Hypocrite’s Hymn is a real kicker!

The 11-minute piece sees the dosage of the Prog, Avant-Rock, and Crimson homage thrown in that makes it a perfect piece of cake. It will meld and swallow you up in the midsection as the band travels through the space of time in the outer limits and then in the haywire effects that will melt you down like no other. And it gives the band a lot of experimentations and avant-garde noises to settle the tones throughout the last section and nailing it at the right moment.

This is my third listen of Trojan Horse’s World Turned Upside Down and I have to say this was not easy album to listen to from start to finish. But they have really surprised me the moment during the second and third listen. This wasn’t your typical prog-rock band, but a balls-out yet weird, surreal, strange, and crazy adventure that Trojan Horse have unleashed with their second album.

So if you are ready for the insanity and adventures of the twisted sounds of the Post-Punk and Prog genre, then get ready for Trojan Horse’s World Turned Upside Down.