John Holden - Proximity and Chance

 A Full House 

Note 

This will be my first review under my Nom De Plume as a writer.

I would like to thank all those who have read my blog over the years. It has now passed fifty thousand views despite recent modest activity. My intention is to broaden its subject matter as well as talk about my up and coming novel, "Hermes" the history it delves into, the speculations it offers and the conclusions one draws from a study of the past and the developing future. 

Proximity and Chance 

The emergence of this new project from John made me both excited but nervous, much like the previous one. The reason is simple after being so thrilled by his previous work and his evolution as a musician I was concerned whether he could maintain the momentum and offer something new and interesting, which genuinely added to his canon. I need not have worried.  

Rather than a track by track and musician call out I am going to offer a more organic less Germanic review, more about the themes that I hear in the music. 

The music comes over as more dynamic and cuts through more than in the past and yet the arrangements with melody, counter melody and harmonics has more depth and weight. The bass playing, from the man himself, on the sub-Traffic opener, tracks and shadows Peter Jones, but equally offers some neat surprises and to my ears is more Roger Glover than the Late Chris Squire in terms of sound. Something else I noticed on this piece is Peter's voice is related to Steve Winwood's. I would not be at all surprised if he is a midland maniac.  

The other standout feature which really shows John's developing skills is the quality of the orchestrations. I am old enough to remember The Nice, Deep Purple and Yes all using orchestras, for the most part the judicious use of a Mellotron, which triggers string sounds, was much more dynamic and simpatico, the foundation stone of several bands' musical personality. In retrospect the aforementioned projects sound naive, less a fusion and more a collision.       

Here John does not add the strings, they are an integral part of the music, helping create the unique and singular atmosphere of pieces like "Burnt Cork" and "Agents" and because of the stories he is telling the orchestrations are often dark and spartan, Stravinsky like.   

There are more gentle pieces, the instrumental "A Sense of Place." where Vikram Shanker duets with John Hackett. Vikram's ability to offer support to the tunes is well known from John's previous work, but again because of the more developed arrangements his accompaniment adds even more. 

As well as Peter Jones and Sally Minnear, whose smiling alto delivery delights on Fini, a new edition is the Australian Tenor Shaun Holton. His sardonic delivery of the narrative on "Agents" is perfect but it took me a while to get used to him telling the story of Kipling's "The Man Who Would be King." Those Haggard, Kipling stories, set in a remote and unknown part of the world in the 19th Century, are propelled by a particular English heroism and some might argue delusions of grandeur. In the end, after listening to Shaun's performance several times, it does come off as heroic in the right way.  The operatic delivery suits the hubristic story he is singing about. 

There is a good deal to stimulate and repeatedly return to, but two pieces stand out for me. The fabulous evocation of Victorian Melodrama of Burnt Cork and the ridiculously joyous Chance (Under the Sun). They take you on a journey draw you in and get inside your psyche.  

Burnt Cork begins evoking the atmosphere of the theatre where our protagonist is performing and then moves forward with a beautiful rhapsodic run from Vikram, wonderful, layered romantic strings, and then Mr Jones comes in with an intuitive, sensuous vocal. Throughout the orchestra is integral, sometimes, sweeping, full of pathos, other times, dramatic jabs. This music is mature, considered and Peter narrates the antagonist's pain and suffering and developing hatred with a real sense of connection. This has that Progressive Rock Musical feel of KV62. It's in the middle of the piece the orchestrations go supernova, supporting Peter's vocal.  The atmosphere is full of menace,  the orchestrations communicate that with darting, determined, muscular pulsing. These are the sections that put me in mind of Stravinsky. The drama over, Peter takes us out through the angst and madness of the murderer.  Such good storytelling and such simpatico arrangements.   

Chance is probably John's first standard; I would expect people to cover this.  It is a very strong piece. "A future yet to know the past behind us." My goodness we need that. Echoing rotating guitar, the glorious tune, the gorgeous chorus, a Ringo drum pattern and then Luke Machin's solo doing all the things a guitar can do to support and elevate a piece upwards. I am humming this constantly.    

More vivid production, dynamic sophisticated arrangements and great vocal performances enhance a programme of  music which includes a couple of pieces, which are his best work yet. 

I had nothing to worry about. It's a privilege and a joy to say nice things about music from such a down to earth but very clever man.        

For more information on John and his work please visit.

https://johnholdenmusic.com