When I saw the other day that Barcelona based Spanish/Dutch prog combo Harvest had decided to put their début album, Underground Community up on their website for us to download free, I couldn't resist! The motives behind this include giving us, the average prog-punter, the chance to "try before we buy". Or in my case, "review before telling you to buy. After trying"

So what's it like then?

Musically, I'd say that Harvest stand with one foot firmly in the prog-pop camp of Season's End era Marillion, and the other in the pseudo-Celtic forest clearing of Mostly Autumn and Karnataka.

There are also traces of Dutch proggers The Gathering as well as their former singer Anneke van Giersbergen, most noticeably on second track Beyond The Desert. On No Return for instance, singer Monique van der Kolk can also throw a nod in the direction of The Cranberries' Dolores O'Riordan

Fourth track, The Story Of Tim Ballas is a beautiful ballad that opens with a Bowiesque acoustic guitar, while Mara is a well decent, heavier track that lets guitarist Jordi Prats have a go! Other influences show later, such as on Change Life where keyboarder Jordi Amela lets his inner Elton John shine through.

There's not a bad track on this album, and the inclusion of their cover of the Marillion track Waiting To Happen is a great move. Normally covers on albums just make me yearn to hear the original, but in this case, it sounds as if it's theirs.

I love this album, and have played it to death over the last couple of weeks. And it sounds even better now that the sun is out. I think I'll head on over to harvestcode.com and buy myself a physical copy. I just wish I could get to Barcelona on May 29th to see them at the Sala Bikini!