Alan Davey - "Captured Rotation"

[Paul G Ward]

Hiya So:ren ......

Well here it is - the abridged review of sorts, as promised.

First the cover art .... pretty awesome. There's a sort of wireframe
mesh cube made up of pale blue lines over a starfield backdrop. Some
of these frames are filled with live shots of the bass assassin #2.
In the very center of the disc is a star going nova ... with rings of
expanding flame in different colors. Extending from the center of the
sun is a vertical line like a spindle with stars and planets skewered
on it below, and truning into  a spinal cord above.

At the top of the spine is a spaceship, with a crystal mountain above
and an illuminated dome below each wing. The center of the ship is a
an indian hawk symbol. Behind the ship are clouds, two moons and a
star. On one side the mesh cube becomes ribbons of light ... like the
northern lights, with some bright stars and a dim face with bright
red lips in between.

Two paragraphs on the cover ... I must be impressed!

Track 1, "The Call" is probably my favorite on the CD. It features
Ron  on vocals (and hey - he actually sounds OK here!).  It's got
some spacey effect similar to HW's Alien 4 album, but predominately
it's a "I thought this was a rythym guitar" bass track. Lot's of
punch and beat - you should like it I think (sounds like Alan was
enjoying playing it too!)

Track 2, "Never Comedown" was a real surprise for me. It's a very
pleasant slow piece, with a nice melody and soft swirling backing
synths. Sort of makes you want to close your eyes and sway your head
around if you know what I mean. The third track is "Higher than
Before", which was featured on the EBS sampler CD. If you aren't
familiar with it, it's a little hard to describe. Another slowish
track with some nice bits of slow and gentle lead guitar, and
swishing synth noises for backing again.

Ron Tree is back for "Ancient Light", a more bass-dominated track
than what precedes. It's fairly dark and foreboding in places, with a
faster pace for the choruses ..... and it has small bits of "The
Riff".  Ron's vocals once again more restrained than on the recent
Hawkwind albums, which is a good thing with this track.

The next four tracks are more expiremental and electronic in nature,
and while they are quite listenable tracks, I don't find them
particularly memorable. "Space Bass" sadly doesn't have any (Bass)
.... lot's of metallic sounding noises reminiscent of the sounds
you'd expect to hear in a giant freighter in a sci-fi movie,
accompanied by an electronic pipe organ sound and some effects. The
very short "Hawkestral" is a little faster, with the addition of some
heavily synthesized guitar. The also very short "Nebula" follows, the
pace slowing and the tone becoing more dark and menacing once again.
This quartet closes with "Thunderbird^", the only track which also
includes vocals (very soft and ghostlike with tons of oversampling)
by Alan. It sort of reminds me of "Virgin of the World" to some
extent.

Track 9, and the album goes back where it left off with "Nova-drive",
an almost frenetic keyboard and guitar combo. This is a very good
track, probably my second favorite. "Spacial Wave" is another slow
atmospheric piece. It's OK, but it doesn't really go anywhere.
"Quirk" is similar in some respects to many of the tracks on Brock's
"Strange Trips and Pipe Dreams" album. Wave sequencer's take over,
but this track definitely has something.

Finally, Ron is back for "Pre-Med", closing the album with some rock,
just as it opened. The lyrics are a little repetive, but by no means
painfully so. It can be played LOUD! Some great guitar work, and are
you sure that those drums are electronic, and not real skins?

Overall, it is a very good album, and worth buying. It's not an album
of the year by any means. A few tracks in the middle seem to be
fillers somehow, but it doesn't really detract when played as a
whole.

How's that?

Sonique
--
"If we knew what we were doing, it would not be called research,
 would it?"                                       - Albert Einstein

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Paul Ward,                     R & D Manager, P & C Micro's Pty Ltd
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