Label: unsigned

Producer: Jack Wright

Release Date: 2004

I have met quite a few people these past few years that really do need to get down to the doctor's and beg for therapy... ongoing uninterrupted therapy... and for anyone who listens to this album without being completely and utterly knocked out... then, please don't take offense, but you really do seriously need to get down to the doctor's too!!

The cleverness... oh the cleverness!!! You see Wright and crew have done something very sensible in writing and recording this album... they have made it a completely sensational effort in every conceivable way possible. Drums and percussion are spectacularly arranged besides some of the most fantastically tight bass lines and for-the-rest-of-us impossible-to-imitate guitar work... that is of course, unless your first name is Jack and your second name is Wright and even then... you need an alias like WrightDude to make it all official. No wonder Scrub Johannsen raves about this guy and no wonder Scrub features this kind of thing all the time at Scrub Radio!

The dance of the wombat is your first little treat on this album. It's the first few bluesy rock and roll rock chords that grip you while you fight yourself into a frenzy trying to understand the very tightly arranged pace and studio separation that makes the drums, bass, and guitar sound truly incredible. My Roland near field monitors were absolutely blown away by this track and so was I! But then, after a few breaths (and you only get a few), you are then dragged ears first into First Flight; a truly thought provoking, beautifully presented progressive rock piece that kicks you bang smack into the middle of the seventies here and there and then sucks you all the way back to now through Wright's self designed audio wormhole! I wish I was his best friend... I wish I could have a good go of his guitar straight after he'd put it down... but more... much more than this... I'd loved to have been at Psychosonic to witness all of this happening at the time it happened. that way, I wouldn't have to feel ashamed of the fact that it's taken a while to get this review published!

Triage... oh deary deary me! Eight Minutes or so of magnificence and splendor pouring forth from every audio orifice. The wavelengths and peaks in this astonishing production must have looked beautiful to the beholder as they meandered across the screen... particularly as the very clever time signatures appear to be acts of God here and there! In sensibly composed and produced rock music.. you have to be awfully careful these days cos there's plenty of people out there who, just like in the old Frankenstein movies, would think nothing of surrounding your studio with burning torches and talk of 'other kinds of burnings' just coz you had the unmitigated audacity to bring the genre into disrepute. Quantum Kids are in no danger of suffering that kind of fate with this album... it's more a case of 'enhancing and replenishing' the genre... and it seems to me that Jack and co have managed to do this with ease! None of this is actually my fault... the guy sends me a CD so I have to be honest and accurate, even though most of the time spent listening to this album has been spent re-uttering the 'F' word over and over again!

I don't want to but I really must move on to the next track: The Domain of Time. This is where things get extraordinarily pleasurably out of hand. Rings of really nice bright and colorful chord work open the track to lead you into one of the most creativ e and expressive situations you're ever likely to find this far into what is essentially a blessing for each of your ears. The JW FX work that kisses and whispers over the sensational guitar and bass bits is somewhat reminiscent of those glorious months that stood between the beginning of 1972 and 1975 and which became the pride and joy of Led Zeppelin, Yes, Floyd, and a few others I can't go into right now because I'm too busy trying to make sure I don't miss anything coming out of the speakers during the opening of the next track Interlude. It's a short piece or should I say 'little tapestry' of fret board intricacies that would sell in the millions if it were a bar of candy. As it's not... we have to content ourselves with the fact that it's a lovely little bar of ear candy instead. I keep getting pulled in by the bass and drum work cos they're simply excellently sorted here. Ask any pro bass player what the most difficult thing is in bass playing today and he or she will tell you that it's 'simplicity played effectively' and that's what this track is essentially made up of!

Now Megametamorphose is very aptly titled. Keep your eye on the drums and percussion here as the track unfolds, then allow yourself to fall back into what's happening in the guitar playing and you'll understand what I mean when I say that this is a really nice piece of music that's been beautifully arranged and produced. By the time you get into that dynamic and colorful solo that dives straight for your heart at around the 2:10 mark, what you feel isn't life draining away from your fragile body... it's life RETURNING!! and I welcomed it back at approximately 2:20!!!

Now... please be careful around the five minute mark not to get too alarmed in believing the track is coming to a close. The surprise of your life is waiting just around the corner as the track spins quite voluntarily into the twilight realm of audio wonderment on the seventh minute! What an extraordinarily sensual delight for the soul! This has to be not just my favorite track on th e album but it is surely one of my favorite instrumental tracks of the past year! Congratulations QK you went and gon e and did it majestically with this one!

Sardonisonic shuffle is the part of your audio exploratory excitement that breaches the borderlines you thought you had set solidly in your musical experiences library for good! incredible guitar work deserves SYNCHRONOUS collective musicianship and it's all going on here in complet e abundance. Watch out for those unpredictability’s turned possibilities as the fret board merges into Mr Wright's left arm... I'm almost in tears when I think how stupid some A&R people can be in letting things like this get away... hopefully it won't be for too long! Please pay attention also to the delightful use of echo's and delays that have been sprinkled around... it's a gift I tell you... and not for the weak fingered! But anyway... give me a few seconds to get down from the ceiling before I get into the spellbinding drum arrangements.... there that's better... what a guy this David character truly is.... there's years and I do mean years of knowing what works and what doesn't in this astonishing drum solo... but puhleaseeeeee if you are just starting out on drums DO NOT LISTEN TO THIS BIT.... take both hands and wrap them over your ears because to be quite honest... your heart will whip out the front door and it's unlikely you'll ever get it back!

What's the most cruel thing that can happen to you at this point? If you've been paying strict attention, you'll know that Etude is the final track on this magnificent album... and that is quite unjust and immensely CRUEELLLLLL!!! Like the rest of the tracks on this album... intelligence of the third kind abounds... and it's spread like life saving marmalade all over this amazing piece of music. I hate using the word 'gifted' but how else do you describe a group of musicians who are sent, and sign for, the delivery of a parcel of astonishingly innovative musical expertise straight from the hands of the Lord? It's what I mean by 'blessed' and my guess is that, in this often mad and nasty world... there is also something else we don't often get the chance to touch upon much these days... sheer joy... do you remember that??? Well folks here's the good news.... you can have your life back... you can have some pure joy... and you are not going to believe this but... all you have to do is press the play button when you stick this CD into your disc drive!!!

 

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