Everybody I've spoken to so far seems to agree on two things. Firstly, the title of this album is quite horrendous. Personally it reminds me of those cheesy tel-sell commercials where Paul King or some other has-been will sell you some CD set with titles like 'Rock Masters of the 70s' or whatever. Secondly, everybody seems to agree that besides the title it's a damn fine album with many tunes in various styles. So, in a way, the title does cover the content of the album.
Martin Orford is no stranger in the world of progressive rock. His resume includes more than 20 years of keyboard playing with IQ and it's predecessor The Lens, as well as many years with Gary Chandler's Jadis. In the second half of the nineties he could also regularly be seen on the road with the John Wetton Band.
With this impressive background, it's not a big surprise that many of his musical mates turn up on this record as well. All of the members of IQ and Jadis appear in one or more track on the album, while it also features contributions by John Wetton himself on vocals and his guitarist Dave Kilminster on guitar. Finally, Tony Wright, who played saxophone on IQ's 'Subterranea' album and who can be seen on the Subterranea live video as well, turns up playing his instrument on one of the tracks.
I have been in the fortunate position to be able to hear some of the music on this solo album in a very early stage. At the end of last year Martin had decided to finally start recording his own album, something which he had been planning for years. During one of my visits he played me some of the material that was being finalized for the latest Jadis album Understand as well as 8 pieces he was considering for the solo album. Most - if not all - have ended up on the final CD in one form or another.
Some of you might already know the pieces Quilmes and Tatras, which Martin has played many times at John Wetton concerts and can be found on some of Wetton's more recent live albums, including Nomansland. Quilmes is a lighthearted piano piece that Martin wrote in the late 70s and was eventually named by Wetton after a local beer during a tour a tour in Argentina in 1996. Tatras on the other hand is a more heavy classical piece which is kind of special to me because it was first played on DPRP's DPRS festival in 1998. The new version of this album doesn't only feature the piano, but also flute and extensive keyboard orchestration.
Both of these are great tracks if you like lightly classical piano music.
The only other track that has Martin playing on his own is the short acoustic guitar ditty Picnic which would not have been out of place on a 70s Yes album.
Part of Me is a straightforward rock track sung by John Wetton. Martin gave it that Asia approach of harmony chorusses and a big guitar solo where technical perfection (Dave Kilminster) and great melody (Gary Chandler) alternate. Other people appearing on this one are John Jowitt (bass), Steve Christey (drums) and Paul Cook (tambourine). The track starts with just keyboards and vocals; drums and bass come in after more than a minute. There's also a nice combined keyboard/guitar solo. Great track !
Another straightforward track is the nice poppy ballad Days of Our Lives which features the full Jadis band plus Tony Wright on saxophone. A lovely love song kind of thing which Martin dedicated to his girlfriend Chris. The song ends with Gary Chandler doing one of his best David Gilmour impressions.
Evensong is another track with the Jadis line-up; a peaceful instrumental track with flute, piano and wonderful orchestration plus a great guitar solo by Gary Chandler.
On to the more proggy stuff. Fusion is an instrumental that was written in the 70s and was also played live by The Lens. Therefore it was only natural for IQ's Mike Holmes to play lead guitars on it (Mike was in The Lens as well). This wonderful energetic track with a Baroque feel where uptempo full-band sections alternate with harpsichord solos would not have been out of place among the first tracks on the Seven Stories Into Ninety Eight album. Martin also included it on the album to prove that he was already writing this kind of music before he had ever heard of 'progressive rock' and bands like Genesis. Besides Mike Holmes, the track also features the other guys from Jadis.
Take the whole IQ band and replace Mike Holmes with Gary Chandler and you've got the line-up for The Overload. A spooky track which Peter Nicholls and Martin wrote during the Subterranea sessions but was never used. The atmosphere of the song is in the vein of Sense in Sanity from the 'Subterranea' album, but more powerful, with lots of sequencers and uptempo rhythms in the second half. Another highlight !
The Final Solution features Paul and John from IQ plus again the magical combination of Dave Kilminster and Gary Chandler on guitar. It evolved from a bit of music IQ used to play live in a 'glam rock' medley. It's a pumping and stomping little mid-tempo track with a very cheerful atmosphere nevertheless. Nice usage of backing vocals in parts of the chorus.
And finally there's the opening track of the album, and one of the highlights of the disc: Field of Fallen Angels. This was one of the songs Martin played me last year on just keyboard and mandolin. Since then it has turned into this massive prog rock track with clear folk influences. Unfortunately the mandolin has become a bit less present in this version, but the sheer energy of the track more than makes up for this. Gentle flute playing opens the song, after which it goes into an uptempo energetic & bombastic rock section with a nice cathcy melody. Halfway through the song, after a nice synth solo, the melody changes and the tempo goes down. While Jowitt pumps away on the bass a nice bagpipe chanter solo plays. The song closes with a reprise of the bombastic opening. One of the highlights of the album. Line-up is the Jadis band plus David Kilminster on acoustic guitar.
All in all a very nice album full of wonderful tunes covering lots of musical styles. Don't expect an IQ album from Martin's solo CD, it's much more versatile than that. Don't expect a Wakeman-like keyboard extravaganza either. There's lots of nice keyboard solos on the album, but (with the exception of Quilmes and Tatras) they are not meant as the focus of the track but to support the track.
Expect a wonderful mixture of some light classical piano pieces, a couple of lost IQ tracks, some nice pop songs and a few prog rock pieces with folky influences. If this mixture appeals to you, you should certainly get a copy of Classical Music and Popular Songs.
The 8-page booklet is another fine piece of work by Geoff Chandler who also did the Jadis artwork, and it features interesting liner notes for all tracks and several pictures, among which one of Martin's school band Triangular Heel.
Conclusion: 9- out of 10.
Ed Sander
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Originally Posted by progfan915
Well, with the "Classical Music and Popular Songs" album, I'm not sure if I'll get a chance to decide if I'm getting into it or not since it seems so hard to obtain in physical copy--I'll keep looking around for it. I do like "The Old Road" though.
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