THE BARDIC DEPTHS : WHAT WE REALLY LIKE IN STORIES

1. Genius
2. What We Really Like In Stories
3. You've Written Poetry My Boy
4. Vendetta
5. Old Delights
6. The Feast Is Over
7. Stillpoint
8. Whispers In Space

Label : Bardic Dephts Music

Length : 45:00

Release Date : March 7, 2024

Review (ProgWereld) : Het nieuwe album van The Bardic Depths heet “What We Really Like In Stories”. Het werd gemixt en gemasterd door Robin Armstrong (Cosmograf) en uitgebracht op hun eigen label, Bardic Depths Music. Volgens oprichter Dave Bandana is de plaat geen conceptalbum maar is er wel een doorlopend thema van auteurs en hun verhalen. Alle nummers zijn opgedragen aan schrijvers door de jaren heen, waaronder Alan Moore, Willa Carther, Walter Miller, Lewis, Tolkien en Robert Rankin. De teksten zijn geschreven door Brad Birzer en Dave Bandana, gebaseerd op het boek “Mythic Realms” van de eerste, auteur en professor-historicus. De band blijft hetzelfde als op het tweede album, “Promises Of Hope”, met Bandana, Gareth Cole, (One Sided Horse, Fractal Mirror) Peter Jones (Tiger Moth Tales, Camel, Cyan) en Tim Gehrt (Streets, Steve Walsh), die gezamenlijk zorgen voor alle zang en instrumentatie. De albumhoes is van de hand van Kevin Thompson, eerder ook al werkzaam voor Big Big Train. Tot zover de officiële informatie. Ik heb al eerder geschreven over The Bardic Depths, hun tweede album, “Promises Of Hope”, was een aangename verrassing voor mij. Na circa twee jaar is er dan een opvolger, met dezelfde bezetting en tekstschrijvers als op de eerste twee albums. Benieuwd in hoeverre de band, want het is meer dan een toevallig samengeraapt groepje muzikanten, in staat is om de prima voorganger te benaderen of misschien zelfs te overtreffen. De belofte van een portie ouderwets solide en vooral melodieuze progrock doet mijn hart in ieder geval sneller kloppen. Dat wordt al direct duidelijk bij het beluisteren van het openingsnummer. Het ultrakorte maar zwaar georkestreerde Genius staat bol van de symfonische bombast, maar is eigenlijk een prima inleiding voor het titelnummer What We Really Like In Stories. De heerlijke en vooral herkenbare stem van Peter Jones neemt je mee in een sterke, goed meezingbare melodie. Meerstemmige zang, uitstekende gitaar- en toetsenpartijen, en tempowisselingen maken dit tot een van de betere songs op het album. Op het volgende nummer, You’ve Written Poetry My Boy, wordt de zang overgenomen door Bandana, zijn stem klinkt hier zeker niet onaardig. Aan Genesis refererende akoestische gitaarpartijen worden door Jones’ klarinet en altsax van extra klank voorzien. Invloeden van vooral Barclay James Harvest dringen zich op: de Mellotron, het slepende tempo en gitaargeluid. Luister vooral even naar de gitaarsolo. Er staan twee langere stukken op “What We Really Like In Stories”, het eerste daarvan is Vendetta. De sfeer is licht oriëntaals en enigszins psychedelisch en zwevend van aard, het doet me sterk denken aan Steve Hillage. De teksten sluiten hierbij aan: “Strenght through purity, purity through faith.” Hoewel niet door hem geschreven is Old Delights zo’n typisch Jones nummer, had gek genoeg zo op een van zijn laatste Tiger Moth Tales-platen kunnen staan. Kort rustpuntje, met veel emotie gezongen melodie, gedragen door de synthesizers van Bandana. Ook dit keer krijgt Richard Krueger de kans om zich uit te leven op een kerkorgel, hij deed het ook al op voorganger “Promise of Hope” (Imagine). The Feast Is Over is de titel van deze song die weer wat van BJH weg heeft, dat kan ook aan de zangstem van Bandana liggen die wel wat lijkt op die van John Lees. “The feast is over, the lamps expire” zingt de voorman van het kwartet. De gitaar van Cole eist weer een hoofdrol op. Alsof je zo een sciencefictionfilm binnenloopt, zo klinkt het intro van Stillpoint. Het tempo blijft laag, de vocalen harmonieus en de altsax fragmentarisch in dit dromerige nummer. Het langste nummer, Whispers In Space, klokt op exact tien minuten en is ook direct de afsluiter. Ik wil niet direct zeggen dat Bandana c.s. het beste tot het laatst hebben bewaard, maar dit is zonder meer een uitstekend nummer en een waardige afsluiting van het nieuwe album. Gesproken woord tegenover een sequencer, Martin Haskell is de verteller van een episode uit het leven van Charles Darwin. Dan ontspint zich een prima progsong, vol met tempo- en sfeerwisselingen, Jones’ mooie baritonstem en dito saxofoon. Een beetje in de geest van Supertramp zou ik bijna zeggen. Spannende muziek met misschien wel de beste gitaarsolo die de talentvolle Cole uit zijn gitaar weet te schudden. “The captain of the skies flies again.” De heren musici kwijten zich prima van hun taak, het klinkt erg professioneel allemaal. Ik ben vooral onder de indruk van de relatief onbekende gitarist Cole die me wederom prima bevalt. Jones besprenkelt het geheel af en toe met een goed geplaatste, swingende saxofoonsolo, een beetje in de trend van Camel en met name Gerry Rafferty. De heren produceren een vol geluid, de heldere productie van Robin Armstrong, samen met Bandana, maakt het weer helemaal af. Verwacht geen hemelbestormende, vernieuwende muziek. Maar als je, net als ik, houdt van goed gemaakte, melodieuze progrock met een knipoog naar de symfo uit de jaren 70, dan ben je bij The Bardic Depths aan het juiste adres. En om mijn eigen vraag te beantwoorden: ja, The Bardic Depths zijn er wederom in geslaagd zichzelf te overtreffen met dit nieuwe werk. Waarvan akte.

Review (ProgRadar) : The Bardic Depths formed when Canary Islands resident Dave Bandanna sought out musical contributions and assistance from fellow Big Big Train ‘passengers’ on a project that he was working on. The response being so positive that Dave decided to turn the project into a band to make an album, which became The Bardic Depths first album ‘The Bardic Depths’. ‘What We Really Like In Stories’, the collective’s third offering, arrives in March and offers eight more tracks of their rather unique, intelligent and different take on progressive music. The eight songs are mainly just under the six minute mark, although there are two longer tracks in ‘Vendetta’ and ‘Whispers In Space’. This album is based on authors and their writing. The lyrics are all written by the band and Dr Brad Birzer, an American history professor at Hillsdale college, Michigan in the United States Of America. Once again, the album has a core group of musicians alongside Dave Bandanna. We find Peter Jones on vocals, whistles, clarinet, trumpet and alto saxophone, Gareth Cole on electric and acoustic guitars and guitar orchestrations and Tim Gehrt on drums and percussion. Dave himself provides lead and backing vocals, acoustic guitar, bass, keyboards and programming. The album opens with a delightful, if brief, overture, Genius which itself leads into the first song proper, What We Like In Stories, which brilliantly recounts a conversation between CS Lewis and JRR Tolkien in which both authors expressed their dissatisfaction at the lack of books that contained what they would like to read. So they decided to write some for themselves, they tossed a coin and the outcome decided that Lewis would write the ‘space’ stories whilst Tolkien would write time travel stories, the term science fiction having not been coined at this stage. From this decision came CS Lewis’ ‘Out Of The Silent Planet’, ‘Perelandra’ and ‘That Hideous Strength’, all of which saw Lewis’ talents recognised in both the UK and North America, indeed, one could say that CS Lewis and Ray Bradbury made science fiction respectable. Meanwhile JRR Tolkien’s efforts were unsuccessful in the short term, it was two decades before ‘Lord Of The Rings’ appeared and a further twenty for ‘The Silmarillion’ to appear. The next track is a haunting, mid-tempo piece, You’ve Written Poetry My Boy, which has a direct line to the works of Ray Bradbury and, in this song, we learn that Aldous Huxley thought that the words Bradbury writes about ‘so many brave new worlds‘ are like poetry. This has a good saxophone solo from Peter Jones and great guitar orchestrations and flourishes from Gareth Cole. Vendetta concerns the works of comic book writer Alan Moore and takes the theme of one of his books ‘V for Vendetta’, set in a near future time, in a dystopian society where one has to make a stand against the way society is being led by those in charge. However, in this song our hero is finding that to be a challenge and hides away, refusing to face what is going on around him. We are told that silence is a fragile thing and that hiding away and not being involved is not the answer to the predicament or the issue. Musically, this a very good track with lots of interesting parts including fine guitar, keyboards and excellent drums, all with a very strong rhythm. Old Delights is a homage to writers, a celebration of their talents and how their words can cause us not only to think but also to view things, people and situations in a different light, a very considered viewpoint. It is another fairly brief track but gets its point over very stylishly and it also serves as a clever platform for the next song, The Feast Is Over, which is based the work of Robert E Howard. Howard is regarded as one of the first writers to write in the Fantasy genre and wrote ‘Conan The Barbarian’, which saw him regarded as the father of the Sword and Sorcery sub-genre of pulp fiction. This track features a very memorable refrain repeated on the closing parts, it is also one of the longer songs, meaning it has space to evolve organically. It opens with a gentle acoustic strumming and is is about Sword and Sorcery writings, the second part of the track becomes more expansive in sound with orchestrations playing. In this section there is a lengthy and beautifully expressive guitar solo that ends with some fiery slide guitar, it is a really strong and satisfying track on every level. Stillpoint is based around the writings of science fiction writer Walter M Miller Jr, who’s work went largely unpublished during his lifetime, another relatively short, but highly enjoyable, track. Whispers In Space concludes the album in strong form, this one references the writings of Robert Rankin, an acclaimed writer whose style included, fantasy, comedy, conspiracy theories and steampunk elements. The lyrics are very clever, referencing in many oblique ways the sad death of Big Big Train’s own David Longdon, as in the line “The captain of the skies flies again…” Again, the music on this track is exquisite with lots happening. A graceful, expressive solo is played with great sensitivity and feel in a very special section of the track. Although the meaning of the song is possibly lost on me really, being a bit obscure and elusive, to my ears at least, the music is exciting and engaging on every level, making it a fitting conclusion to a very interesting and rewarding collection of songs. With ‘What We Really Like In Stories’, The Bardic Depths take a subtly different route from what has gone before, the album having no central theme as such but, rather being a collection of songs inspired by literature. I enjoyed this album immensely and further, extended listens have allowed it to firmly secure a place in my heart and mind, I heartily recommend it.

Review (ProgArchives) : The Bardic Depths are back with their third album under that name, although given that Brad Birzer is still providing lyrics and the band is led by singer/bassist/keyboard player Dave Bandana this is in many ways a continuation of Birzer Bandana, who released two albums before changing from the caterpillar into a wonderfully beautiful butterfly. I find it interesting that the artwork is by Kevin Thompson who has previously painted for Big Big Train, as like them they have changed into something far more polished and professional than when they started out. As with the excellent 'Promises of Hope' from 2022, we are down to a core quartet with Dave again joined by Peter Jones (Camel/Tiger Moth Tales/ Red Bazar), Gareth Cole (Paul Menel/ Fractal Mirror) and Tim Gehrt (The Streets/ Steve Walsh) while the production is again by Robin Armstrong (Cosmograf). Although this is not a concept album as such, it can be argued it is a thematic one in that it has a continuous theme of authors and their stories, with each song dedicated to writers across the years including Alan Moore, Willa Carther, Walter Miller, Lewis and Tolkien, and Robert Rankin. With four singers we get lush harmonies, while Peter adds the wonderful clarinet and alto saxophone we have become used to from his other bands, providing rich nuances. On this release all keyboards are by Dave, which is quite a change from the last release where there were three others, yet somehow even though the band has shrunk into itself with no guests, the music has more depth, breadth and presence. The result is progressive rock music which at times is almost pastoral, linking them even more closely to the Big Big Train of modern years, with vocals and melodies which make the listener smile. This is not difficult to listen to, and at times feels almost like a comfort blanket as it wraps itself around our senses and provides warmth and pleasure in equal measure. It is a thoughtful album, both in lyrics and the way it presents itself, mature and without rushing headlong. There is no doubt this is the finest album to date and well worth investigating.