Amazing Review of Tales from the Edge of Yesterday

YES! The new album from Doug Woods & Colin Powell; billed as a retrospective look at the golden age of Prog. Incidentally most retrospectives amount to “greatest hits” albums but not this. Styles are revisited but all the material is new with a generous sprinkling of recognisable riffs and phrases which essentially act to draw the listener in and which cause this listener to reach for the previous albums to enjoy the whole experience all over again.

This may not be exactly what Mr Denks & Mr Klade had in mind but it is indeed a retrospective of 6 years of constant and real musical progress for our dynamic duo. With a back catalogue which puts many professional artists to shame Doug & Colin have relentlessly pursued their eclectic musical vision from album one the excellent “The Haunting Of Sally Caster”; episode 1 of what has to be one of the most complete story lines in all of Prog history spanning as it does some 5 recordings each of which tell a complex and complete musical tale the likes of which west end writers can really only dream of. No exaggeration- go listen for yourselves…

Here they are listed in story order:

The Madness Of Benjamin Folde

The Haunting Of Sally Caster

Sally Caster 2: The Revenge

Sally Caster And Denks And Klade: The Mechanical Girl Takes Revenge

The Mechanical Girl A.I.

All these and more are available from Bandcamp.

Meanwhile: who would have thought in a Marillion years that 2016 would be the Genesis of this Gentle Giant catalogue of home grown music able to (Van Der Graaf) Generate, Or - at least - inspire, by a series of majestic Orchestral Manoeuvres conducted in light or Dark (we know not) but this reviewer is certainly Grateful (Dead grateful in fact) that they have inspired a whole new crop of listeners and contributed substantially to a burgeoning genre.

This is really a beautiful taster album for those who don’t know Doug & Colin and a very handy compendium of beautiful, nuanced, pieces covering everything from Classical to avant-garde via folk, rock and pop for those of us who do. So, in these days when we could all use something to celebrate I give you; Doug Woods & Colin Powell, “Tales From The Edge Of Yesterday”.

The Aardvark Guy