Review of Angels (Heaven's Lore Part One)

Here is the first review of the Doug Woods and Colin Powell album Angels (Heaven's Lore Part One), written by The Aardvark Guy (click the image to listen to the album whilst reading the review):

Angels: Heaven’s Lore Pt 1

An allegedly traditional philosophical conundrum goes something like this: How many angels can dance on the head of a pin?

Frankly I have no idea but I do know one thing;

This album needs to be played through a decent pair of speakers rather than through earphones. Why? Well, it needs space to breathe. No. Really. Through phones it loses some of its warmth and immediacy becoming less than its Creators intended and less than the listener deserves. “Angels” benefits hugely from the ‘dirt’ between the speaker and the listener’s ears. Whereas many other records by our dynamic duo really do utilise the artificial environment of the stereo field to good effect this one is better “au naturel” as it were. And no, it doesn’t have to be played loudly for the difference to become apparent. And perhaps that is unsurprising given the subject matter.

Behold The Face Of God:

Overture and beginners please. As you’d expect this builds from a single chord which develops into a delicate piano melody with choral backing lending the piece a light handed gravitas which, once again, demonstrates Doug and Colin’s penchant for Romanticism.

Magnum Mysterium (The Great Mystery):

Unexpectedly, I love this piece! I am not a great fan of the whole Pink Floyd thing but here Colin powell plays a beautiful Gilmore inspired guitar which when combined with Doug’s soaring buzzsaw synth line suggests two people in search of something almost in unison

Fields Of Elysium:

An old fashioned brass patch kicks this off with a delicious low piano as its counter point which doubles with a bell like sound to suggest the location suggested by the title. A soaring lead guitar is combined with some delicious twelve string guitar over a rock solid drum rhythm. Is it hip to talk of yearning? Melancholy? Don’t care. This is just beautiful. Thanks guys.

Procession:

One of the great strengths of Progressive music is its ability to take what would appear to be the repetition of previous material and upscale it to become something else; in this case the song reminds me very much of one of Doug and Colin’s earlier works, “Sally Caster And Denks And Klade: The Mechanical Girl Takes Revenge”. if you don’t know the album think of this as a taster, or even, a reminder of an old friend.

On Angel Wings:

A slow, deliberate and almost lumbering start - and that is a compliment - builds through a melancholy almost meditative mid section before metamorphosing into a frenetic finish on this joyride of a tune. Includes some sizzling guitar from Mr Powell.

Danza Degli Angeli (Dance Of the Angels):

Okay, I’ll come clean this is likely the best song Simple Minds never wrote in the New Gold Dream era. If you like material such as “Hunter And The Hunted” this might well be right up your street. And best of all it is an instrumental; nuff said?

Cosmic Angels:

To my ears this piece benefits immensely from being played through speakers. Okay, perhaps not iphone/ iPod / iPad.

Angel On My Shoulder:

This rocks. Another movie soundtrack, probably for a gritty cop drama. Here is the city writ large on a sonic canvas where you can almost taste the stale beer! There’s a bad man about and these guys are going to nick him…

… Or are they? What’s in that battered brown envelope? Who is that softly spoken, waif like woman child who is always in the right place at the wrong time? You decide. Oh yes, the last chord is well worth thew wait.

Angel Of The East:

As the title suggests the track opens with a Bouzouki type sound giving an immediate Eastern European flava before becoming very middle eastern. Turkish Delight anyone? Full of eastern promise a hypnotic drum rhythm combines with a sweet - if somewhat unnerving - lead guitar before being joined by moog and choral patches which give way to a Trick of the Tail era riff leading in turn to the centre of the piece; a movie soundtrack full of eastern menace. The man in the fez is not the Doctor and he is not nice!

When An Angel Weeps:

This really could have been the soundtrack to the original weeping Angel story on David Tennant’s stint as The Doctor. Hypnotic, timeless almost serpentine in nature this track has a graceful beauty which is simply a joy to counterpoint with the sense of unease into which it finally ascends.

Under Angel Moon:

The intro to this reminds me of one of the very last GREAT Roxy Music / Bryan Ferry songs before the fire went out and vacuous pomp became the norm. However all is not what it seems as the piece unfolds into a blistering storm of fierce guitar licks and tightly controlled emotion. Epic.

Beneath The Angels:

meanwhile back in the 1970’s this is the backing track to the kind of summer sound a lot of us grew up with and really deserves a melody and a lyric to match. Catchy to the point of bouncy, in another dimension Doug and Colin are a combination of Pilot and Ace and this is the worldwide hit often dreamt of but seldom gifted.

Angels Take Me Home:

Final track: Theres a certain type of atmospheric ambiance these guys do really really well and this is another prime example. Made all the more poignant by the fact that Doug’s father passed away in the final stages of recording making the album’s subject matter even more relevant than it was beforehand. So, it’s only fitting that the final song evoke good memories and may be the sense of a triumphal exit perhaps? Who can say?

So, another winner from Denks and Klade, sorry, Woods and Powell. Here’s to the next one…

Happy listening.

The Aardvarkguy