And it came to pass that members of thee bande and various of their friends were seated to partake of their luncheon, for the hour was late, and they hungered. 

And food and wine and all manner of good things were brought unto their table that they might partake thereof. 

And after thankes were given they ate of the food, and drank of the water, and of the wine.  And Dan said ‘Yea verily, for it is good’, and did eat thereof.  And Geoff also said ‘Yea verily, for it is good’, and ate he also thereof.  And likewise did their friends testify unto the goodness of the luncheon, and ate thereof.

But Dave partook not of his luncheon and summoned unto the table the waitress, saying “Lo, for this is like not unto that which I ordered”.  But the waitress rebuked him, saying “Nay, for thou orderest the number 27 with extra artichokes, and thus have I brought unto thee”.  But Dave was wroth, and there was weeping (from Dave) and gnashing of teeth (from everyone else, while they ate).

... being a diverfe collection of mufingf with naught of narrative to commend them…

“Let us … on your imaginary forces work. …piece out our imperfections with your thoughts.”

William Shakespeare, bard.

Rhyme

We live in the continuum.

This review appears online at Losing Today - The Indie Music Magazine. Thanks folks - really, really appreciate the support. Once you've read it here, you can read it all over again at www.losingtoday.com/tales.php?id=131

The Merlin Bird 'Reason and Rhyme' (Self Released). As near to perfection as you can probably get, 'Reason and Rhyme' is the debut release from Melbourne based quintet The Merlin Bird who describe themselves via their wonderful Myspace site as a 'rock, progressive, folk rock' ensemble which I'm sure you'll agree pretty much covers a very broad spectrum.

To describe the six tracks (well four really - one being a reprise of the title cut - the other 'The calm before' a brief but gorgeous slice of Brontean wonderment a la FortDax) that feature here is to say its like discovering some guarded word of mouth secret entrance to an enchanting and magical world.