BAND OF RAIN
The Dust of Stars
(2017 - HOLLOW HILL MUSIC – UK)
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Six years after his last release (‘Sun In VIII’ – 2011) British composer and musician Chris Gill put together a team of band mates, artists, and technical helpers for the finest recording yet by Band Of Rain. While some might call it progressive rock, I’d add a very liberal dose of world fusion to the description of this ‘Dust of Stars’ platter. While it does have a couple of slight nods to the heavier moments of Porcupine Tree, it adds many textures that may remind listeners of the floating tunes of Pink Floyd’s David Gilmour and even a touch of Alan Parsons Project. But that’s just a taste of it. The last cut made me think of an exotic post rock band with Vangelis on keyboards.
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Band members featured are Micha Steinbacher, Ria Parfitt, Gordo Bennett and of course Chris Gill. You may remember the female vocalist Ria Parfitt from previous BOR projects and she does a wonderful job on a couple of tracks here. She reminds me of a cross between Kate Bush, Happy Rhodes, and Toyah Wilcox, if you can imagine that. I understand from Chris that Micha Steinbacher did a tremendous amount of contribution to the compositions, production, mixing, and overall overseeing, to get this labor of love to market.
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A major plus about ‘The Dust of Stars’ is all the changing textures in each song. The beginning of the album has a celestial intro, then crunchy guitar. ‘Dark Sun’ (track 7) even has throat singing which sounds fantastic. Surprise developments using a host of instruments like sax, sampled tabla, plenty of keyboards, very fluid guitars and a hodgepodge of atmospheres, allow the ebb and flow to be perfectly balanced. From beginning to end, this is a pleasure to become engrossed in. A big applause to everyone who was involved with this creation and a hat’s off to Chris Gill for putting the right people together. RECOMMENDED.
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Reviewed by Lee Henderson 11 - 3 -2017
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