Tag: Gordon Midgley

Review – Napier’s Bones – Monuments – by Scott Evans

For those unfamiliar with Napier’s Bones, they are a Uk based prog rock duo made up of Gordon Midgley, lyric writer and musician extraordinaire and Vocalist Nathan Jon Tillett, who also provides artwork to the albums. ‘Monuments’ is the band’s fifth album and continues in the vein of traditional prog rock with very story based songs.

Gordon has been teasing the album and songs for a few months now, giving real insight into the production and guitars/effects used, so some parts of the album are already familiar but don’t worry there is plenty more to explore.

Opening track Standing Childe is a 23 minute 9 part opus that tells the tale of Childe, a warrior trying to live up to the reputation of his father, even with the knowledge that it would ultimately lead to his death. The cover artwork features Childe’s Cross in Dartmoor said to be the resting place of Childe The Hunter, inspiration for this epic tale. This is classic prog rock story telling and is layered with glorious moments. A good test for me on the longer prog rock tracks is ‘does it feel like a 20 minute plus track, or does it pass quickly due to your enjoyment and investment in the track?’ I can safely say that Standing Childe holds your attention well! There is enough solid instrumentation, lyrical content and epic moments to keep you hooked. From the opening instrumental section, The Childe, which features some great guitar and synth work , it flows seamlessly into Mark Well which introduce the protagonist of the story and gravelly vocals over lush acoustic guitars gives a very Gabriel era Genesis feel, which is no bad thing. And into for me the best section of the song Born To This Duty, absolutely glorious combination of acoustic guitars and mellotron type synth a great companion to the previous section and again very Genesis in feel , this is great prog rock. Like Never Before keeps us on track and lifts the tempo of the song with a cracking guitar solo from Gordon M , delivered with a warm 70s feel. Very nice. A sudden stop and new guitar riff changes the feel of the song, When Horizon Meets The Sky yet again features a great guitar synth mash up with catchy hooks being thrown out by Gordon with apparent ease. Part 6, Fate Will Do As It Must, for me falls into the leave them wanting more category, it is a really great section that could have been twice as long, but alas the story must continue and we are now over halfway. Today It Ends has more of a Pink Floyd feel, and we are still firmly in classic prog territory. Vocals are delivered dreamingly over a much layered musical track (A must listen on headphones section), Not Enough and Behold The Childe finish our tale , again great acoustic guitars, another solid guitar solo and layers of synths give an epic finish. Nathan’s vocal delivery over this section is particularly good as he takes on the perspective of Childe who has done his best to save himself from death but ultimately fails. And we are finished track one! Worth the cost of the album alone, a fan of prog rock you would be hard pushed not to get a lot of enjoyment from this track.

Mirabilis continues where track one left off in feel , a song about the alchemist Roger Bacon who tries to create artificial life and and wisdom believing that achieving this would connect home with the divine, he ultimately fails. Whilst the album is not a concept album, there is a running theme throughout of people trying to be more than they are, trying to leave a lasting legacy on history, in some ways they fail yet do leave their mark in history, just not the way they expected.

Waters Dark draws its inspiration from a Yorkshire legend around wanting to turn back time, a beautiful plucked acoustic guitar leads the song surrounded by other haunting guitar with a more upbeat folky chorus. Free to Choose keeps us firmly in deep prog waters, starting almost like a Yes song both in feel and production. From Gordon’s notes the song is about bohemian painter Robert Lenkiewicz whilst rejected by the art establishment, he went on start his own colony of outsiders based in Plymouth and found a different way of showing of his art. All the songs on the album can be linked to legends and historical figures and, like Big Big Train or a good Dan Brown novel, the subject matter is well researched and explored.

The Heights finishes off the album a song around missed opportunity and chances, bought on themselves by a life of daring and drugs , based around the sad life of Branwell Bronte. A quite catchy song, I found myself having the chorus going around my head for some days. The sound of the sea and a fading backwards guitar bring the album to a close.

Gordon and Nathan have delivered Napier’s Bones’ most satisfying album to date, an album that ticks many of the prog rock genre boxes with some great musicianship and lyrical content. Oh how I would love to see Standing Childe played live with a full band, maybe one day…

Released 24th August 2018

Order Monuments from bandcamp here

 

 

Review – Napier’s Bones – Alpha-Omega Man – by Emma Roebuck

Welcome to Napier’s Bones’ fourth outing and they have decided to create their own mythology for this new album, ‘Alpha-Omega Man’.

A rare thing for me to quote biblical/religious texts but it’s appropriate

“I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty.”

I have played and played this to get to the core of the meaning but I believe it has many levels for those willing to look. Gordon Midgely and Nathan Jon Tillet have, in the previous albums, looked at local and/or established mythology and drawn that their inspiration from that. Tregeagles Choice, which is referenced in the track Without Sentiment being an old legend form the south west.

This album appears to be the journey of the creation of a Messiah or Deity figure from its formation in some unseen mechanism attached to tubes and machines, comatose awaiting consciousness. This is essentially Awakening, the opening track.  A being out of time and space cast adrift on the oceans of an empty void.  The music is classic prog with Mellotron and guitar work and what sounds like analogue Moog synths. At 13 minutes long I could go down a black hole of paranoia and ‘End of Day’s’ language in massive volume here but I won’t, I promise.

The Messengers, a distant American News Anchor tells us of an all seeing, all knowing news service bringing harmony from discord, from Alpha to Omega.   Heavy fuzzed bass and guitar with a mono synth is the insistent back drop. The voice of the creator in the void that our hero inhabits.

Leading Straight into Citizen, we finally hear the voice of the Alpha-Omega Man. The music makes you feel like you are travelling, a solid pressing bass line and massively distorted guitar solo of which John Lees or Andy Latimer would be proud.  He surfaces slowly into the next track Hypno-Sapiens, a suitably ethereal track fitting its name and place.

You could take the concept of this album as that of a comatose man recovering from a near death experience, slowly lifting from the darkness. You could also take this as the second coming of the messiah from Judeo-Christian mythology, placed into a modern framing of St John’s Revelation.

I will not go track by track for the rest but, instead, I suggest you listen to them and seek your own meaning. I don’t want to spoil the ending either.

Musically I think that we have a definite ‘Napier’s Bones’ sound that makes them distinct from other bands and it is definitely one for the classic Prog fan. It is prog at its most ‘proggiest’, theatre, sci fi, mythology, death and deity all rolled into a musical epic. 3 tracks coming in over 11 minutes and a narrative that runs true from end to end. Yet, it is neither pretentious nor self indulgent, it is Gordon and Nathan pushing their musical boundaries out of the comfort zone of the previous albums to see where they can go musically.

Fans of The Tangent, Camel, Barclay James Harvest, Genesis, Big Big Train and their ilk will find something of worth here, but not in a plagiarist’s way.

Released 20th January 2017

Buy ‘Alpha-Omega Man’ from bandcamp

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EPrva9xMGBM

Review – Napier’s Bones – Hell and High Water – by Emma Roebuck

Napiers Bones

Gordon Midgely and Nathan Tillet, two musicians that found each other by chance, separated by a few hundred miles from Yorkshire to Plymouth, managing to create music together via the wonders of modern technology and the interweb. Another of these types who inhabit the no label world and do it for the love and wanting the world to hear their music.

This is the third album under the designation Napier’s Bones (a mathematical calculating tool).  Both these guys have an obsession rooted in myth and fantasy, both modern and ancient.

Musically very accessible but still very complex in structure, this album is split into two very different parts. Interestingly, one suite is set in Buckfastleigh’s Holy Trinity Church and is a cautionary tale of modern technology and celebrity wandering into a supernatural nightmare for the sake of ‘light entertainment’.

3 tracks combine to tell the tale of a slip into madness, or actual Hell, all for the delight of a television audience. Musically it is full of massive keyboards and excellent guitar soloing with no detriment to the themes or the songs. Classic Prog is in the DNA of this album, in fact, it is in all of their albums. Melody and song is important to these guys as well as great technical ability.

Part 2, if you can call it that, is another suite based on the origins of Lake Semerwater in the dales of Yorkshire. There is a tale of a hermit, in actuality a Saint on his travels, seeking food and replenishment who is scorned by an entire village save one herdsman’s family. The flood as punishment and cleansing, here, is a very real theme. All save the herdsman’s family were flooded and perished.

An old tale told in four parts musically reflecting the story from the viewpoint of a minstrel in the days of Yore. Opening with Mallerstang Morning, a very folkie feeling song reflecting the minstrel’s trade and an optimistic morning. Leading into No Room at the Inn, the rejection and pleading for a chance to perform and deliver news from afar for a bed and a meal. The comical intro moves into a much sinister threatening tone using a mellotron choir and dissonant tones as the piece progresses.

The punishment and conclusion, Rain Down, musically depicts the storm with huge organ synth and guitar building the tension as the storm breaks and the rain falls to punish the tormentors. Finally A Wake In Yordale, the calm following the destruction and aftermath as the minstrel wanders off into the distance.

For all the doom and gloom this is entertaining and there is not a dull moment in the album. If you are a fan of tale telling and have Camel, Jethro Tull or Big Big Train in your collection then this album should be yours and you can get it for free or pay what you think it’s worth.

Released 18th March 2016.

Get ‘Hell and High Water’ via bandcamp

 

 

Review – Gordon Midgley – The Vanished Age – by Emma Roebuck

Vanished Age

“From Classical tales of Jason and Odysseus to cinema blockbusters via Norse sagas, Hesse and Tolkien, the ‘Hero’s Quest’ is a staple of mythology and literature.
A voyage of self-discovery
A Rite of Passage.”

So says the bandcamp page of Gordon Midgely’s  solo project. He and Nathan Tillet form Napiers Bone’s whose two albums ‘The Wistman Tales’ and ‘Tregeagles Choice’ are also freely available on bandcamp. The pros and cons of an artist giving their music away is not what we are here to discuss but I must say it is a brave strategy for two aspiring talents.

To the Album then; a truly ambitious  project in its intent to capture in one album the essentials of the classical rite of passage story in music.  Wagner’s ‘Ring Cycle’ spans 15 hours yet this album condenses the mythological  concept of the heroes quest in under 45 minutes. I tried listening to this album piece meal in the car and also as a single chunk, giving it the attention any music reviewer should give to an album.

It plays like a film sound track and its very hard to disconnect the individual sections of music. In the main, it is instrumental with vocals, as and when required, for accompaniment. Weaknesses, in the main, are not in the actual composition but in the delivery and production.

The drums sit high in Like Circe’s Feast and Out of the Wilderness and fill the rest of the soundscape out, making it difficult to really listen to the actually excellent guitar and retro keyboard work on show (yes, Mellotron). I am assuming this is a technological issue rather than anything else.

The music, without actually sounding anything like it, makes me think of Bo Hanssen’s ‘Lord of the Rings’ album in the textures and feelings it emotes.

There are bits I really enjoy, like Ronin, which I can only assume to be a nod to Japanese free fighters who are only loyal to any cause they choose. In this case, the companion to our hero. The track exudes the potential for violence constantly restrained but sometimes out of control. We follow the journey of our hero, his dalliances with love, and the inevitable Nemesis as it comes to the final battle and resolution (no spoilers).

The music comes from all sorts of influences, I hear 60s psychedelia ‘Berlin School Electronica Prog’ from all eras and some cracking rock music.

The final track The End of the Beginning is by far the best piece of the album and showcases the real potential waiting to burst free from this guy’s mind. My only criticism really, apart from what I said earlier, is that there is not enough here. I would have liked to have heard all the sections explored in the same way as Ronin and the End Of the Beginning.

As a freebie you cannot turn this down. Gordon, I think you missed a trick by not doing a pay what you want tag on the album. I reckon you should download this, light a couple of candles, put the head phones on, with a glass of whatever your fancy and let the music wash over you! A 45 minute cleansing of the soul. While you are at it, look for the Napier’s Bones material!!!

Released 31st October 2015

Free download from the artist’s bandcamp page