ROCK/METAL, etc:
FONY: Nefer CD Single
Gotta admit - out of all the bands to take off on the "New Millennium" rock/emo/hardcore scene, this band remains a personal favourite - there's something about their whole style of arranging, composing and playing that sets them apart - they've got flow and depth, daring to be adventurous while at the same time rocking out with a venomous passion. Here we have the whole band in microcosm - three tracks, one from each of the two albums and an exclusive live track. The lead title taken from the latest album just soars into life with the band delivering a sonic attack that is so pure yet bites like an angry bear, vocals, guitars and rhythm section in perfect harmony and driving like a juggernaut. Then the live track, a version of 'R.I.U.P.' that just blows you away with its intensity as the live band kick ass. Finally we're into the dynamics of the magical 'Fait Accompli' with its silent angst lead vocal that suddenly explodes into a cacophony of guitars, the rhythm section driving with the devil on their tail, then back to subdued before it all takes off again, the contrast serving so well and never failing to make the hairs stand up on the back of your neck. What a band - make them HUGE!!! - they deserve it.
FR8: In Cold Blood CD
Yeh, it's a debut album - OK, so it's only 27 minutes long, but there are seven tracks and enough vocal and instrumental firepower to bomb a small town. It's punishing stuff as the pummeling rhythms drive holes through your chest and the guitars become the equivalent of musical flame-throwers, destroying everything in their path with intensity and grunge overload. Over all this, as classic a hardcore vocal as they come, just bellows out on top, but this guy is different - first off he's mixed well but secondly the guy actually manages to make the vocals sound "sung" so, with the lyrical clarity and sheer overwhelming passion, he makes every song sound spot on. In many ways this reminds me of the acceptable face of Slipknot, and I would imagine that this would appeal to most fans of that band . Unfair to single out any tracks, because they're all monsters that will tear you limb from limb and spit out the bones. This is heavy and then some, intense and seriously brain-mincing, but so feckin addictive, you'll be OD'ing on it for months and years to come. The bright future of metal-core is here - grab it with both hands - before it grabs you!!
FRUIT TREE: Sunset CD
Now you have to admire any band who take chances, musical chances, because the end result can prove to be either awesome or fatal. This sextet have elected to create a blend of death, goth and black metal with the intention of making the end result more palatable than over-the-top. The result is surprisingly excellent. The opening five minute 'Asylum', fuelled by a sea of mid-paced guitar roar, is almost instrumental as the death metal male vocal is buried so low in the mix, it almost becomes part of the instrumental expanse,. But as an opening track, it just steams. Then it's onto the second track, 'Hymn To The Archangel' where the likes of Nighrtwish, Evanescence & Within Temptation come into play, but here the band make a classic ploy that puts them ahead of the rest - their female vocal does not opt for anything operatic in the vocal department, instead she has an almost AOR type of vocal that still soars above a sea of crashing drumming and sizzling wall-to-wall slow riffing guitars, before her vocal shifts down a notch to sultry sensitivity, still strong, as the band goes the other way and takes the brakes off, now flying - and when the vocal and band meet in the middle, the effect is jaw-dropping, as the song takes on a life that simply burns a place in your heart with ease and grandeur, six minutes of joy. 'I Am The White Wizards' is almost literally six minutes of power-packed black metal heaven, as the sound of driving riffs, crushing rhythms and soaring leads combine with the almost harshly whispered vocals and huge-sounding choirs to create a sort of black-goth metallic hybrid that has you gasping at its potency. Then, for 'Confusion By Statue Fall', both styles are brought together with incredible results, this time the female vocal really hitting the spot, combining perfectly with the low-down and evil male vocal as the band just plays a blinder, slowly moving chords of epic proportions combining with strident rhythms and a guitar solo that lights up the night sky with electrical intensity before the whole thing drops back to acoustic eloquence as the song takes a surprising and absolutely brilliant new direction, so melodic and passionate, as the band fires up once more and the whole thing then rages along on thunderous waves of guitars, riffs and rhythms, to a near seven minute end point - superb!! Three further tracks of equal class, quality and she unadulterated pleasure, follow on, and make up a simply stunning album that takes a musical hybrid you might think had been overdone, into wholly new, fresh and wide-eyed dimensions.
HELLOGOODBYE: EP CDEP
Wow!!!! Wheatus meets Sum 41 with a blistering set of songs taking commercial nu-metal to a wholly higher dimension - the opening track is the sort of thing you want to play and play and play - so accessible, so commercial, so hard and just a supernova of guitars with a gloriously sung male vocal, such an infectious song and one that I'll be playing long and often - hit by any other name, if there was any justice. 'Call 'n' Return' is equally sensational although less of an intense experience and more bouncy but still so addictive, this is pop punk at its finest, the song full of feeling and the band pogoing up and down with almost indecent simplicity, that sea of guitars and keyboards swirling all around the main choruses for its just over two minutes duration. 'Bonnie Taylor Shakedown - 2K1' is just so sublime, so gorgeus, so passionate, from the male vocal full of heartbreak to the roaring mass of guitars, keys and rhythm section that inhabit the chorus and take the song to unimaginably tear-jerking heights. 'Jesse Buy Nothing' is almost like a New Millennium Dictators, with a classic song that takes cod-punk-electro-dub on a wild ride that will make you smile and make you sway, so bizarre and yet so perfect in the context of this EP. A further sizzler and what amounts to a dance remix of 'Bonnie Taylor….' that has "smash hit" written all over it and should have been the lead track, end what is 22 minutes of wide-eyed, smile-inducing, leaping-around-the-room, good-time songs with a solid punk heart.
HOLLYWOOD ENDING: AngelTown Pt2 CD Single
With the edit and the full album version of the title track, plus a third track called 'Always', this is a great introduction to a great band, that perfectly represents how a modern emo-rock band can blend a wall of sound approach with stuning song-writing and arranging to produce a huge-sounding slice of magic that is both commercially palatable in a radio-friendly way, while still retaining this immense sound that the band are capable of providing. As a mix of passion and power, it's spellbinding. 'Always' is, if anything, even more radio friendly, reminding me a bit of classic Blink 182 but with more intelligence and creativity, yet totally catchy - superb stuff!!!
HOMEGROWN: When It All Comes Down CDEP
Whoooaaahhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Oh yes - he said leaping about the room to the opening track - now THIS is the business - ohhhh, I mean - just listen - LISTEN - to that riff - pure new millennium pop-punk with Blink 182 written all over it, only this is sensational stuff - that song, it gets better then - OH CHRIST!!! - that chorus - I'm in heaven - that is FANTASTIC - back to the verse - chiming guitars, driving rhythms, Americana punk vocals then - BLAT!!!!! - into that chorus that is so anthemic I'm flying - watch me - just stunning - what a song - sorry, sod the review, I'm putting that on again - I just have to hear that song again. One more run through later, it's onto track two, 'Cross My Heart', and it's another gem, more of an overall flow than the first track but no less effective or addictive as you find yourself carried away in its guitars-fuelled, rhythm-driven, anthemic vocal delivered magic, this time a song that almost makes verse and chorus one gloriously sublime entity, and just such a joy to hear as you leap around the room at an even more intense rate. 'I Was Right About This' takes on the likes of Sum 41 & Blink 182 at their own game and comes out winning by a country mile, with a song that is just the epitome of good-time, pop-punkarama, a sea of guitars, vocals and huge production, huge choruses and immense arrangements providing something that's almost a religious experience and just one thunderously addictive sucker of a song. Three further songs complete the twenty-three minute outing and each one is equally amazing, completing what is the finest statement of this sort of music from any band around right now - with radio play this will be IMMENSE - trust me, I'm a reviewer!!
I CAN MAKE A MESS LIKE NOBODY'S BUSINESS: S/T CD
Wow!!! - the art of "shoegazing" comes to modern indie-rock and the result is a spellbinding CD with total originality and the sort of glorious musical black hole into which you are only too happy to dive as your mind is pushed this way and that. With a musical base of guitars, rhythm section and real strings, this is a very emotive and emotional offering, with songs as songs, songs as clouds flying overhead on a summers day, songs as passionate purity, in many ways it's a Damien Rice gone rock-orchestral type of sound, and the amazing part is that, particularly as a slice of late-night listening with the joss stix burning, the lighting on soft and the distant glow of the candle silhouetting the bottle of red wine on the table, as you lay back on your sofa and drink in both the wine and this album, it works to perfection. The word "sublime" was created for this CD - and it's awesome. Rarely has song-writing with an emo touch, shoegazing with a solid heart and passionate singing with an emotional edge, sounded so brilliant and addictive - this is one of THE classic late-night albums, and as good at any other time of day, when you want romance without sex, passion without pain and angst that you can enjoy. Stunning and then some.
THE LUCKY NINE: EP CDEP
Five tracks, 17 minutes and one almighty set of songs to make you go weak at the knees, the very first time you hear it. That guy's voice - jeez, is it powerful - he can go from throaty roar to Lydon-esque sneer in a heartbeat, sing softly one minute than rise like a phoenix to deliver a vocal that simply flies with such feeling and strength, you just want to be cruising alongside it. Below and around all this, a sonic hurricane of riffing guitars, swirls and soars as this epic canvas of guitar mayhem fills every corner of the room, the rhythm section at the heart of it all, glueing it all together and powering it ahead. Song after soaring song rages and burns, dynamic and dense, occasional chiming guitars giving respite from the all-out attack. The songs themselves are another sea of blazing intensity, with the guitars that swirling sizzling soundscape, like a single organic unit evolving and growing before your very eyes, but the construction of a track such as the awesome third track on this EP, is nothing short of mind-blowing. Full of musical originality and ideas by the truckload - witness the industrial electro of the short final track for proof of that - this is a band to breathe in and feel so fine when you do.
SYNTH MUSIC:
PHILIPPE BESOMBES: Cesi Est Cela CD
Seventies is the name of the game here since, as was typical of the time, the French were exhibiting more musical creativity and originality than the Germans who were getting the lion's share of the spotlight. But what will amaze you when you hear this album now is just how "Krautrock" it sounds - you'll hear touches of early seventies Tangerine Dream, Cluster, Mythos, and hints of Heldon, but all infused with that French sense of adventure that "Le Rock D'ici" came to characterise. This is a truly timeless album, full of melody, atmosphere and individuality, so cohesive and choc full of music with synths, keys, drums, sequenced rhythms and more. This is a dream album for lovers of early seventies "Krautrock" electronic bands who want something different, adventurous and a touch more melodic.
BODDY/WOSTHEINRICH: Moire CD
The album of ten tracks is split into five and a half rhythmic pieces and four and a half space music tracks. That said, it's a most unusual album in that, neither style takes away the enjoyment from the other, and the overall feel is of an album that's rock solid and atmospheric at the same time. In many ways, there are no points of reference - you've probably never heard an album like this before in your life - but that's the joy of the thing. Right from the start, the huge, mighty, deep and driving synth basslines churn holes in your stomach as the multi-cascades of synth rhythms and cyclical chords all add to the ever-growing rhythmic strength, changing shape along the way until it hits a groove and - blattt!! - the whole thing sizzles as synth effects, flows and themes combine with the, by now, highly addictive rhythmic base to provide a track that has you hooked right from the start. After five minutes of this, good as it is, the second track, 'Perambulator;, is even better with a floor-moving synth bass rhythm that threatens to take the filling out of your teeth as it resonates through the fibres of your very soul, the whole thing best experienced loud as the assorted layers of clattering, thundering, wheezing and flowing synths, electronics and electronic drums provide this tungsten-tipped arrow that cuts through everything in its path. After this onslaught, ther six minute peace of 'Diffractions' could not be more appropriate to restoring calm to a rhythmically wracked body, as seventies echoes of cosmic music gone by begin to fill out into a full-sounding sea of galactic proportions - none of yer syrupy, bland, light and sweet drifts here - this is the rea sound of dark and deep cosmic electronic music, with an edge and a slightly unnerving quality at the same time. The four minute 'Scorpio' gets back to bass-ics with a rhythm so heavy it threatens to fall through the floor, as the mighty lumbering multi-layered meaty, beaty beast of a track roars into life and takes you over, its mix of rhythms and bass and electronic drums so highly charged as synths echo, dive and flow all around the thunderous heart of the track. So, to a degree, that's the story of the rest of the album - where it's rhythmic it attacks with a vengeance, on fire and taking no prisoners while at the same time full of magical musical originality from the synth overlays and flowing chordal dynamics, while the space music tracks are truly "out there", accessible and atmospheric for sure, but so highly addictive it's almost criminal. For me, the finest Ian Boddy collaboration I've heard in ages - and an album that simply can't be faulted.
MAX CORBACHO: Moontribe CD
Of the sixty seven minutes and six tracks on this excellent space music album, three of the tracks and about 30 minutes of music, feature electronic and ethnic percussive rhythms under the vast sounding cosmic synth layers and textures and melodies that are the heart and soul of the entire album. That said, for me, this is nothing short of superb as the rhythmic tracks still have all the feel and warmth and universal wide-eyed qualities of the non-rhythmic ones, but they introduce a new foundation to the music that gives it added strength and solidity, purposeful direction to the drift. Overall, though the music is simply stunning as the musician constructs these giant synth compositions that flow to the stars on unending layers of synth music heaven. Simply, a brilliant album.
MAX CORBACHO/BRUNO SANFILIPPO: Indalo CD
With a twenty minute, a fourteen minute and pieces lasting around six-seven minutes, this is an epic work of space synths music and is inspired by the vast, warm and expansive landscape of the region of south-eastern Spain from which the title is taken. The photo of the plains and mountains on the inside of the booklet perfectly reflects the music. Opening with the twenty minute title track, you spend the first five minutes with drifting, building, layering space synths that sound just gorgeous, before this gently rumbling bass and rolling ethnic percussion rhythms emerge as the synths billow out like cloud formations, and the effect is simply breathtaking, so that you can close your eyes and almost imagine being under the blues skies and fluffy white clouds, enshrouded in the warm, dry heat of the sun - it's just magical. In many ways this track has a distinctly Steve Roach-esque quality to it, only probably more varied and even warmer sounding, but as a space synth epic, it's one of the best of its kind. Following this, the "shorter" tracks are actually rhythm-free and, if anything, even more spectacular, with huge swathes of space and cosmic synths rising up and filling every corner of the ether with truly inspirational soundscapes, finally ending on the absolute breathtaking beauty that is the fourteen minute 'Signs Of Former Experiences'. Overall, one of the best space synth music albums around right now.
JOHN DYSON: Evolution CD
Debut album from '89 and very much the mark of the ex-Wavestar musician maintaining the almighty retro-aced power of the band while very much venturing out into his new and what would become trademark, melodic territories. As a result, the near twelve minute 'LFO' that opens the album, starts in quiet anthemic mould before slowly rising and building into this huge-sounding organic slice of music that becomes a majestic exercise in layering and arrangeing so that by the finale you have drums, seas of synths, deep bass and more providing this massive slice of muscular melodic music that near takes your breath away every time you hear it. By way of contrast, this is followed by just under three minute of 'Heaven's Bridge', just a lead synth weaving a most beautiful melody that leads right into the four minute symphonic splendour that is 'Haydn Seek' as a synth-meets-classical idea develops but, unusually, one that actually woks a treat. The six minute 'Location 43' is a stirring piece of music that drives forward on a solid rhythmic foundation of electronic drums, twanging synth bass, sequence-effects synths while all around an horizon of never-ending melodic and choral majesty unfolds, develops and soars to uncharted heights with ease and huge outpourings of feelings. The ten minute 'Return 3' uses a piano lead to accompany the synths, choirs, strings and more to produce another huge-sounding slice of electronic magic, but one with a distinctly classical and class quality yet something that's also uplifting, delicate, expansive, resonant and cavernous, all at the same time. The eight minute 'Juan-Michel' really does conjure visions of Mediterranean delights as well as a voyage around the planets as a unique slice of what could be called "symphonic-retro" unfolds. The eleven minute title track is simply awesome, unfolding in the classic manner that Wavestar's anthem whose title I have completely forgotten did similarly, only here the "retro" sound is replaced by this mighty, organic, high-flying mix of symphonic, majestic, graceful and passionate layers, melodies, rhythms, sequencers and drums, all combining to deliver a truly dynamic piece of music that can't possibly fail to inspire and delight. If all this wasn;t enough, the original album now boats a live ten minute bonus track that features the live sextet with Dyson & D'Lear on lead guitars on a slowly building track that combines the very best of Wavestar & Pink Floyd to provide you with a slice of music that has you virtually holding your breath in wide-eyed amazement as the music unfolds to quite wondrous extent.
JOHN DYSON: Aquarelle CD
Originally half of the ground-breaking UK synth duo Wavestar, John Dyson's second solo album from 1991 came as a great surprise to many, when really that shouldn't have been the case. Always the master of composing a memorable melody, he'd always been at the forefront of mixing tunes with sequencers, power with passion. For 'Aquarelle' he cut back on the power, preferring to let the tracks build and develop more organically, as a result coming up with an altogether more anthemic album, slower, less overt force, but with more of a flowing quality to the tracks. There's a warm, rich and luxurious atmosphere running through this album, while the melodies, string synths, sequenced and electro-percussive rhythms and general synth backdrops are all arranged and superbly composed to come up with what is a timeless and utterly gorgeous album that sparkles with life. Every track makes you feel glad to be alive - it's that sort of album - highly uplifting without ever being clichéd, the mark of a superb musician. Overall, it's a lot more anthemic, a lot more melodic, but has great empetus all the same. Once you start listening, it's irresistible with a charm that shines, a passion that glows and that richly textured, almost symphonic influence making up this expansive and crystal clear sounding album, choc full of magnificent and magical melodies. The eight and a half minute 'Analog' is the closest you get to old style Wavestar while the nine minute 'Tall Ships' is, as the title suggests, a slow-moving, anthemic, uplifting and truly heart-warming slice of synths-created beauty. If you had to sum the album up in one word - magical!!!
JOHN DYSON: Different Values CD
The ten minute 'Valley Of Hope' that opens this album, recorded in '93/'94, shows right from the start that Dyson's creativity is in full flow, as it mixes the best driving elements of the first album with the melodic grace of the second, to create a piece that is at the same time, symphonic, anthemic, "Berlin"-esque and full-sounding as the layers of synths, lead synths, synth choirs, sequencers, and solid electronic drums, all combine to provide a track that flows superbly yet at the same time has great strength, lush textures, rhythmic cohesion and that superb uplifting quality mixed with sky-high melodies that marks a real compositional talent at work. The seven minute 'Through The Rain' carries this forward in an altogether more atmospheric manner, with the symphonic and melodic sides of things forming the main focus of attention as the track shines from start to finish. 'No Replies', at a shade under seven minutes, is a slight departure in that its heart is a rhythmic strength made up of thunderous and thudding electronic drums, deep resonant synth bass and solid percussive strength, while, above all this a synth solo shines like a light in the dark as it takes off and glides over the solid rhythmic foundations. The eleven minute 'Tudor Rose' once again is a track that lives up to its name, with an almost medieval flavour to the melodies as synth leads, harpsichord-style melodies, soaring high-register synths and a deep backdrop of richly textured string synths and deep flowing bass all combine to produce a truly majestic and quite glorious sounding slice of heavenly, magical and wide-eyed romantic multi-synths music that almost brings a tear to the eye for the first five minutes or so, but then this massive sequencer rhythm fires up, and above this a gently thudding electronic drum rhythm, the waves of synths leads amass and rise like a seagull flying gracefully above the ocean, as the music dives and soars in truly melodic, anthmic fashion, building layers all the time and climbing ever higher, a truly stunning slice of synth composing and arranging. Four similarly structured and hi-quality sounding tracks follow, all majestic, dynamic and melodic in their own ways, to make up a solid and dependable, addictive and utterly "human" sounding album, another triumph from the compser, player, producer and arranger, John Dyson.
JOHN DYSON: Beyond The Gates CD
From '95, and it comes as no surprise to find another Dyson album that's like a "journey in music" as the compositions, once again, fly, soar and drive, the equivalent of flying from one end of Australia to the other and observing all the marvels of nature so far below, as one beautiful element comes and goes, an almost mind-bending travelogue of spellbinding wonderment - and that's the flavour, thematic qualities and sheer synths-driven delight which this album oozes by the bucketful. Melodies, rhythms, textures - all the trademarks of what marks his albums as being beautiful and strong at the same time - are all present as track after glorious track unfolds in typically majestic, anthemic style. With string, sequencers, synths, electric guitar, bass synths all creating wondrous passages of the utmost melodic and cohesive strength and grace, there's not a second on the album that is less than passionate, emotive and wide-eyed splendour, as track after glorious track drives and sails to perfection, the mark of a master who can make electronic music sound so warm, and yet so engaging, so full of feeling and yet substantial. Simply another brilliant album.
JOHN DYSON:Silverbird CD
What actually makes this album his best since 'Aquarelle' is not so much any particularly spellbinding epic material but a consistency of musical quality that has not been apparent on a Dyson album for a long time. There is a lot of suitably grand-sounding symphonic music plus a great range of melodies and rhythms, all easily accessible and just about verging on the right side of making you want to dig it out and play it more often than some. There are some delightful passages and the whole thing flows along smoothly enough. The production is excellent and the tracks will please anyone into the lighter, less aggressive side of things, although I prefer something with more bite. In my opinion his most consistent for a while.
EDGAR FROESE: Dalinetopia CD
Well, after 33 years of listening to Edgar's music (lord - is it THAT long!!!) I could be forgiven for thinking that the glory days might be gone - luckily, I'd be wrong!! For this is a stunning album - no, seriously, it's wonderful. The man is a master with a melody - OK, so in the past, he's been guilty of producing some horrendously syrupy melodies, some so sweet and thick you could spread them on toast - but here, he's got it just right. Yeh, the man's mellowed out over the years, but - hey - we're all getting older - and, unlike me, he may not still be leaping around the room to Fony and Foo Fighters, but he's lost none of his compositional skills, and this album is a magical result. Welcome to the Edgar Froese chill-out album!!!
What is so great about this album is it's construction - from tracks where the rhythms are pure ambient - chunky, electro-percussive, almost ambient dub in nature - through more symphonic, less rhythmic tracks that are founded on beds of multi-synth layers, keyboard solos and electric guitar, in various combinations, to even a track where the core rhythm is a classic "old school" sequencer line. Two of the longer tracks on the album actually combine all these elements to even greater effect. But throughout it all, it's got that all-important languid bliss - chilled out rhythms, slowly moving melodies and huge, expansive arrangements, with a symphonic grandeur that makes it sound more a son of the seventies rather than a nod to the nineties. In many ways, apart from straying amazingly close to the feel and sound of his old track 'Tropic Of Capricorn' on one of the later pieces on this CD, this is a refreshing change in familiar surroundings - the musical equivalent of spring-cleaning. Nothing to challenge, nothing to amaze, nothing to break new ground - but for huge-sounding, multi-layered, warm, substantial, down-tempo, melodic gorgeousness, then this album is an undoubted winner. (oh yeh - it's just short of seventy minutes across ten tracks so each track is allowed its time to grow and develop, and the production is spectacular throughout too).
EDGAR FROESE: Ages CD
Speaking of spring cleaning, this one's more the equivalent of painting the room a different shade of the same colour - more "Changing Rooms" than "Extreme Makeover" (a comparison lost on those that don't have Sky TV!!). But, more than that, it's like changing from fiery red to subtle pink - yes, the man's gone soft in his old age. You see, the only track on here that I know as good as intimately - but nothing like some of the T Dream fans on the discussion groups who can virtually compare it note for note - is the longest, the twenty minute 'Tropic Of Capricorn' and what's happened here is that very little has changed. The core and heart of the track remain the same, but what he's done is add assorted, more symphonic elements to round the sound out, give the track a more layered appeal, expand the textures, enrich the melodies and, sadly for me, take away the rawness. The telling point arrives at the fourteen minute point when, whereas before, the drums kicked in and you really felt the dynamics put into play, now, the solid bass and any power are firmly buried - still there but buried - in an ocean of symphonic synths and string synths that take over in this immense sweep of almost filmic proportions, as the whole thing climbs and climbs majestically - maybe he wants to be Ennio Morricone these days. Anyway, the heart and soul of the track are still in place, and for me, nothing major is lost to any marked degree, plenty is added to surprisingly decent effect, and there's a an all-round smoother feel to the thing, but that's because Edgar doesn't rock anymore. Elsewhere, it's probably a similar story bit I don't know the originals well enough to make the comparison - still sounds a good album though.
EDGAR FROESE: Epsilon In Malaysian Pale CD
Meanwhile, back at "Changing Rooms" (guess you've spotted the thematic link running through these three reviews by now), this is what happens when you open your eyes and see what Llewewllyn-Bowen's done to your favourite room - and you suddenly realised you preferred the old one after all. In all my years of reviewing, I've always tried to separate out what I'm hearing from anything that's gone before - take each album for what it is rather than trying to compare it with something from days gone by. But, in this case, it proved practically impossible. I know this album so well, and, on first hearing, I kept thinking "why on earth have you done that?" along the way as the core of the album's mellotron-laden title track slowly becomes buried under an avalanche of string synths and space swoops and rumbles, sometimes managing to rise to the surface in a desperate gasp for air, only to submerge below the waters once again, yet refuse to be beaten as the track continues, It's like someone's painted yer living room without using an undercoat and you can still see that favourite red lying behind the new pink. Frustrating as hell!! Thanks to its classic sequencer lines, 'Marouba Bay' comes out marginally better.
BUT - and here's where it gets bizarre - you settle down, you look at it, you realise it's not so bad after all, that the shock of the new has simply been a first reaction, that you still have something that isn't so alien after all, that in actual fact you have something new that you just know you can learn to live with, and as time goes by, may even find yourself forgetting about the past if you let the unfamiliar into your life. It's different enough AND, in the end (unlike 'Ages' where, for me, the jury's out on buying it again), definitely good enough, to be worth buying again - a whole new decoration without destroying what still makes it so unique in the first place.
KEVIN KENDLE: Deep Skies 1 - Light From Orion CD
He's released numerous albums, been one of the more underrated of the space music composers, yet none of the albums I've heard to date have really had that extra ingredient that endeared them to my heart - this one has - and in planetary quantities. With ten tracks linked to form a single sixty-one minute cosmic music epic, this has all the hallmarks of the finest American space synth music pioneers of the mid-late eighties, combined with the best influences of artists such as Serrie and Stearns, but the sheer magical feel and atmosphere of the music sets it apart from even those great musicians. With layer upon layer of synths, rippling melodic backdrops, strings that stretch from horizon to horizon, the effect is simply staggering as these seemingly infinite textures and layers fill the room with sound. But there is also a secret weapon at work here - the presence of a fantastic glissando guitar courtesy of player Brian Abbot and, when utilised, just takes the already vast sea of space music, into another galaxy altogether, as you are completely drawn in to the deep space that stands before you and all around you. Of its kind - incredibly atmospheric, varied, never standing still but never overly dark and certainly not droning - it's just gorgeous yet full of depth and harmony, beauty and strength, the fact that it plays as a continuous single piece only adding to its splendours. As this kind of space synths music goes, on the finest for ages and surely this will be the one to put him up there with the so-familiar names of the past. A triumph!!
