After a prolonged silence, the Hungarian mansters return better than ever and with fresh new ideas. Show is an entirely conceptual record, an acid and tenancious critic about Technopolis, a futuristic worldwide city in which its inhabitants are brutally and constantly bombed by the media and publicity (maybe this sounds familiar nowadays).
On certain part of the cd you can hear Radio Technopolis transmission, which among other news says some like '...the monetary fund informs that recent studies prove that money should make a man happy... on a short message, the Creator states that Universe was in fact made by him and he finds the evolution theory highly imaginative and very funny.... thousands of citizens from Technopolis have gone into coma due to a media overdose.... we'll be back after the comercials'. This small but tremendously funny comedy can very well portrait the general idea of the record, which length goes over 70 minutes of one of the best progressive works ever conceived and interpreted.
If their last studio work, called simply 6, the Afters gave us a non disputable idea of virtuosism, on this record you can expect to go open mouthed, as their sound continues its evolution, getting far away from the remote but present influences of such bands as King Crimson and ELP, to show us all their potential, imagination and musical skills, with a sound that has become uncuestionably their very own.
Show is like the soundtrack of a masterpiece, a complete record, from beginning to end, on which every instrument is on its exact and proper place and time.
The line up is fortunately the same, although on this record you can note that, besides the usual skills of Péter Pejtsik on bass, cello and orquestration, there are some fantastic ideas and arrangements from Balázs Winkler on keyboards as well as the fantastic and omniprescent section of woodwinds through all the record. This of course, not to underestimate all the acomplishments from the rest of the band.
Show balances in a sublime way three of the most important items on progressive (or art rock) music: composition, arrangements and interpretation.
The only downside part is that After Crying has acustomed us to a constant evolution and musical surprises and there comes a point in which I can not figure out how can they manage to go any higher than this. I've heard some ultraprog fans which state that this might not be their best work, compared with such as De Profundis or Megalázottak, and there are some that even dare to say that Show is a litle soft. Of course, in order to understand this critic on a logical way, I must asume that After Crying can be as soft as a 100% pure gold bar; which might be soft but still remains a precious metal.
Show is the kind of records that you enjoy on first instant, but learn to love with every hearing.
Anyway, an excelent production on which this Hungarian masters still teach us where to go and how to get there.

Carlos Malvido