November
Artist: Paley's Watch
Label: Plankton
Records
Length: 71.45/8 tracks
Progressive rock from a Christian perspective is often difficult to come by. The music requires a good deal of commitment, both because it hasn't really been in vogue for a number of years now, and, because of its complexity . This is one of the few recent releases of a progressive rock concept album written by a group of Christians.
The story is that of a group of people in the town of Bury, England during the month of November. No direct connections are drawn between these people: listeners are left to make these for themselves, and their stories are very different. But there are threads joining them together. Just as all humans are joined by their natures and their societies, there is a feeling that things are not as they should be. For some of the characters, it is that their lives are clearly in a mess; for others its more subtle.
Each character gets individual track. Two other tracks set the scene and close it. The music is varied, made up of instruments from classical guitars to mandolins to keyboards to 'ghastly green gibsons'. The musicians are extremely able (Marc Catley, for example, is a guitar teacher), and they have put together some clever arrangements. Marianne Velvart's eastern european origin means that her accent is fairly distinctive, even if her vocals aren't too far above average.
The sound does suffer from the low budget of this recording, and doesn't have as contemporary a feel as I would have liked. The feel may have been what the artists were intending, however, and if you're prepared to look past that to the musical diversity there is much to enjoy.
By James Stewart (12/4/98)
