Shady Lane: 37

Based round the guitar and singing talents of Dutchman Remy Tjassing, Shady Lane have posed me a question… Does music with a decent helping of time-changes, intricate instrumental passages and a willingness to eschew simple verse, chorus, verse, chorus structures automatically become 'prog'? Well on the evidence of this beautifully put together collection, I'd venture the answer is yes, but not really. For what we have here has an underlying rockiness, a playful grunge heart and a dirty habit of adding straight up riffs and vocal sections.

Yes, the long influential hand of Steven Wilson can surely be heard throughout, but then so can the jangle and howl of the much missed Paw. Gritty riffs happy to mingle with enigmatic bursts which more closely fit the prog billing. And yet, with a clean but grimy guitar sound, Tjassing's sweet but sour vocals and a hefty thunk of drums, bring it all together and you could as easily imagine Wilson and his ex-band mates porcupining their tree, as you could Eddie Vedder and his pearlers jamming until their hearts are content.

However, the key is that "37" (the song) and "Hello John" both hold enough enigmatic interest and enough hard hitting bravado to engage the senses, whether your fix come from the 'G' of grunge or the 'P' of prog. Hence myself and Remy may not quite agree on what to call what he and his band mates have produced, but what we won't argue about, I'm sure, is that whatever it is, it's pretty damn good. If 90s inspired music performed by a bunch who obviously have a prog heart, sounds intriguing, then head for Shady Lane and knock on the door of number 37...

Track Listing
1. The Bardo
2. Hello John
3. Chamomile
4. 37

Added: December 24th 2015
Reviewer: Steven Reid
Score:
Related Link: Shady Lane online
Hits: 2202
Language: english

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