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Brown, Charles: Cry Of the Northern Wind

Charles Brown's guitar music is mature, melodic and different – and it's a damned good listen. Yet it very often sounds nothing like guitar music. Brown has adopted the guitar and the guitar synth as his instrument of choice, and has developed a sound that is exclusively his own. You won't hear anything like this anywhere else.

Classically trained and a master all-round guitarist, Brown has released 5 increasingly sophisticated CDs of richly textured instrumental music. All are somewhat similar in their extensive use of the Roland GR-33 synth, and all are essentially solo efforts with occasional bass, percussion and keyboard assistance from guest artists. A common characteristic of most of Charles Brown's songs is a simple theme that is developed and embellished and built into a multi-layered body of work that preserves the sanctity of the original melody, yet simultaneously displays all the complexities and sophistication that will appeal to the demanding progressive rock fan.

The sounds generated by the synth vary tremendously. For example, "The Funk's in The House" is just that - a funky piece with what sounds for all the world like a big-band multi-part brass backing. Add what Charles calls an "Al Dimeola meets Hendrix type solo" and the contributions of long-time Internet-collaborators Bill Lawrence who provides a lilting bass groove and Matt Bassano with a light-fingered mini-moog solo and you have an unconventional piece of music that will appeal to the sophisticated listener. The self-titled "Cry of The Northern Wind" is a highlight. As with Beethoven's 6th symphony, you can close your eyes and hear the cries of a howling wind in this track - it builds up then pulls back and builds up again and again, all the while maintaining a taught energy that speaks to the latent power of a storm. This piece is melodically powerful as well, and by far the most complex piece on the record with interweaving themes and layer upon layer of textures and a rich variety of synthesized instruments.

There are trumpet-like patches on this album, mini-moog-like sections, and even some 'tron-like choral sounds - but it isn't all synthesized. The plain old garden-variety guitar - electric, bass and acoustic - is at the heart of this music - yet the style is unconventional and creative and although the cadence is usually rapid and the pace driving, there's no unnecessary self-promotional noodling, and no experimenting with synth effects. Every note and every chord contributes directly to the song at hand - this is refined, tightly composed music.

Cry Of the Northern Wind comprises11 tracks that are over in just 39 short minutes - and you'll wonder how so much sophistication could fit into such a condensed timeframe. In a review of a previous Charles Brown album it was necessary to point out that it really wasn't metal - it was rock. This time it isn't rock - it's progressive music with a foot in the symphonic and the rock camps Cry Of the Northern Wind is a more mature piece with more jazzy touches, more old-fashioned influences, and with hardly any of the raw anger and the quasi-metallic heaviness of Brown's earlier work. You'll also find major improvements in the standard of production and mixing quality, and the cover art by Jilaen Sherwood is imaginative and spacey, and provides appropriate packaging for what is both - an other-worldly body of music, yet it also evokes images of lonely seascapes and the howling cry of a northern wind.

Track Listing:

1. Cry of The Northern Wind
2. 104 Octane
3. Thru the Mist
4. The Sands of Time
5. Anthem to the Sun
6. Mr. Dowland's Midnight
7. The Hourglass
8. Aerial Passage
9. The Funk's in The House
10. Neutron Detonation
11. Raindance

Added: March 24th 2005
Reviewer: Duncan Glenday
Score:
Related Link: Fossil Records' Charles Brown page
Hits: 2481
Language: english

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