Wednesday, May 25, 2016

DARRYL WAY: "Myths Legends and Tales"

Rating: RRRr
Label: Cherry Red/Right Honourable 2016
Review by: Urban "Wally" Wallstrom

Myth, Legends and Tales is definitely old school Symphonic Prog-Rock. You know, the sort of music the pre-date mankind and merely the big dino's roam the earth in search of prey. Are you Darryl's next victim? Have you decided that any progressive record post 1980 is basically rubbish and can't get enough of the thought of ending up as dino food? Then this is your lucky day, punk.

Darryl Way is of course the co-founder of Curved Air and his latest offering to the ancient Gods, speak of wonderful tales of the mystical world of Greek mythology. Expect to find a lot of clever arrangements and the mixture of vocal tracks and instrumental pieces where the man and his violin take centre stage. To quote the man, "As a rock violinist I have always been searching for that elusive sound, turn of phrase and means of expression that would give the electric violin a legitimate voice in the idiom of rock music. With this album, I feel that I have come closer than ever before to achieving this goal", end quote.

I actually surprise myself as I enjoy listening to the instrumentals of "Orpheus and the Underworld" or "Aphrodite". The latter Way describe with the following words, "Just imagine it's a hot summers evening and you're on a beach of some beautiful Greek island and the Goddess of love has just stepped out of the water". I'm there. Totally. Merely three out of ten tracks are instrumentals though. The rest are all filed under mature, laid back, Prog-Rock, which will appeal to Curved Air fans as well as the ones into the likes of Mike Oldfield, Moody Blues, and Asia/Yes (their most laid back period and stuff). The jazzy work of "Helter Skelter", and no, it's not the Beatles' track, something different from the rest.

Final verdict: It's a one man project as Darryl Way handle everything from electric violin, keyboards, vocals, to the programming. Way is definitely wearing suit and armour as he fly the flag for old school Prog-Rock. Waving it in the (Curved) Air like he just don't care..
www.darrylway.com

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