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Tim
Burness produced his first recorded sounds in the mid-eighties with
his band Burnessence. They played with IQ en Pendragon. Later on, he
started a solo-career and had a few other projects.
The CD
starts with "Count in" , a superfluous track with the sound of a
toy-GSM, lasting only 20 seconds.
"Open Man" (downloadable as free Mp3) is the real start : a
shuffling pop-tune, easy to sing-along, not to slow, not to quick
and in substance a little thin. The voice seems a bit forced, but
keeps tune. Perhaps I'm not used to that kind of 'vocal chord' use.
"Stepping out" is served with the same sauce, but rocks a bit more.
"Returning to you" is a 48 seconds lasting sound fragment of a
guitar played backwards. "Heal your soul" has, next to Tims vocals,
an ambient tinted accompanying guitar. Towards the end I hear
actually "Brian Eno in his Camel period".
"Unstoppable waves of joy": I am astonished. Is this the same CD ? A
Tangerine Dream-loop starts, a David Gilmour guitar sound supports
the rhythm and a few moments later you can hear the typical dragging
Hackettguitar. When a few moments later an Alan Parsons/Andreas
Vollenweider sound precedes a strong drum part, the feast is
complete. It sounds glorious and the 4'36" pass too quickly.
"An
interlude with monty" is an acoustic piano-improvisation piece in
Keith Emerson-style. "Beneath the surface" is (again) an
instrumental trifle with Hackett influences and a vintage-keyboard
rhythm sound. Not up to much I'm afraid. "Love is for giving"
resembles tracks 2 and 3, but is more full, more complete in it's
construction.
To
my second great surprise "Tomorrow's God" is a track that would fit
perfectly on the CD "Gallery of Dreams" of Gandalf and Hackett.
Lovely harp sounds on a floating synth-tapistry. Beautiful ! That
won't fully do for "Walk through the Darkness", a solid slow-rock
track. "One Dream" finally is a short poem, painted on acoustic
guitar, changing into a moving ambient-backwards-Hackett-sound.
I
can live with the fact that the website-info "classifies" Tim's
music in the contemporary melodic rock area, but comparisons to
Peter Gabriel, Sting, Tears for Fears and Alanis Morisette are a
little too far fetched.
From
a Prog-point of view, I can't say I'm overwhelmed. Perhaps music
lovers, listening from a different angle will discover other
fascinating elements. |
