One eye on the sunrise --- Nine Stones Close --- 2012 (Prog Rock)
Conceived originally as a solo project for guitarist Adrian Jones, Nine Stones Close (no, I don't know what it means either, and I don't know if it's "close" as in "close the door" or "close" as in "close to you"...) have had essentially three albums now, though the first one didn't really feature a band as such. This is their second as a full unit, and although I have yet to hear the previous efforts, this album only just barely missed out getting into my top twenty albums of 2012, purely because I decided to listen to it too late and had the list all ready at that stage. But it's definitely one of my "unofficial" favourite albums, another one I found hard to stop playing and move on from once I began listening to it.
It opens on some weird little electronic noises then a pure, beautiful piano not a million miles removed from Mark Kelly's best slides in. The soft ambience is suddenly blown apart though by some powerful guitar and punching drumming, as choral voices on the synth join the melody, and "Faceless angel" becomes one of three instrumentals on the album, with some quite Gilmouresque guitar from Jones to take the song to its tinkling close and into the
very Marillion "Secret", so much so that the opening guitar riff is almost identical to "Torch song" from their 1984 "Clutching at straws", the last album with Fish. Beautiful crying guitar and swirling synth though and a yearning vocal from Marc Atkinson soon pulls the song away from being any sort of a clone or copy, though the somewhat annoyingly familiar riff does run through the track, making me unconsciously sing
"Read some Kerouac/ And it put me on the track/ To burn a little brighter now." Try it: it works disturbingly well.
It is though a lovely ballad and a real showcase for the band's tight-knit musicanship, with some powerful backing vocals and another storming solo from Adrian Jones. One of the standouts comes in the form of the dramatic "Janus", with a big instrumental opening, heavy percussion, almost siren-like guitar and thumping bass which runs for almost half the track's length before some beautiful classical-style piano and soft sizzling synth takes the melody. You might think a six-minute instrumental would drag but it doesn't at all, and the guitar work in this track is truly stunning, displaying Jones's expertise on his instrument of choice. It might seem a bit much to follow this with another instrumental, but "... And dream of sleep" is a purely guitar-driven piece, with some violin on synth adding to it, a little percussion but mostly a showcase again for Jones on the guitar. It's soft and folky with a nice little pastoral sound, less than two minutes long, and leads into the title track.
This is in fact almost the longest track on the album, though there is one that beats it out, this one clocking in at over twelve minutes, and starting on something similar to what we have just heard, acoustic folky guitar in a kind of early seventies Genesis vein, with a soft vocal from Atkinson which suddenly gets more powerful and rocky as the whole track takes an upsurge, Brendan Eyre's keyboards laying down some warbly organ and Pieter van Hoorn's drums pounding like breakers on the shore as the song moves into a fast, seventies progressive instrumental phase. Some almost Zeppelin guitar from Jones then as it goes along, until halfway in when it all slows down and returns to the soft guitar of the opening, with some little flute and violin sounds on the keys, some almost vocalise from Marc Atkinson just riding along the edges of the melody. Guitar and bass then begin building as the keys march behind them and the vocals come back in, getting stronger as the song approaches its denoument. A big heavy rock ending brings this epic to a close, and we've still another to come!
After that you'd no doubt be expecting a shorter, gentler song, and indeed this is what we get with "Eos", a nice little guitar line complementing Adrian Jones's understated vocal in again, it has to be said, a very Marillion sounding tune with a healthy dose of Floyd in there too. Lovely soft guitar solo and some fine keyboard work, echoing the theme of the opener, "Faceless angel", and taking us into another long track, the almost ten-minute "The weight". With a big guitar feedback opening this pulls no punches from the start, a solo kicking it off that you would normally expect to hear around the middle, or even end of most songs. This then drops back to a very introspective (come on! I haven't used that word for a while now!) guitar line and gentle vocal, deep percussion and thick bass then supplementing the tune and fleshing it out more. "The weight" is followed by "The distance", with very Steve Rotheryesque guitar that ventures into sitar territory at times, the vocal this time right out of the Steve Hogarth playbook. This song, great as it is, could very easily be on a current Marillion album.
In complete contrast however, "Frozen moment" is like something out of a Van der Graaf or Zep setlist, with heavy squealing guitar and powerful keys, tripping drums and a strong vocal. Starting off rather frenetically it soon settles down into something of a mid-paced groove, and it has indeed time to settle, as it runs for over thirteen minutes. It's got a real dramatic feel to it, very epic with a lot of changes and one of the best vocal performances from Marc Atkinson on the album. Also some great guitar histrionics from Jones, and some great interplay between he and Eyre on the keys. The album then closes on one more instrumental, a lovely piano and violin piece which goes under the appropriate title of "Sunset", and rather bizzarely puts me in mind of Billy Preston's big hit "With you I'm born again". Hidden message?
TRACKLISTING
1. Faceless angel
2. A secret
3. Janus
4. ... And dream of sleep
5. One eye on the sunrise
6. Eos
7. The weight
8. The distance
9. Frozen moment
10. Sunset
I really do love this album and it's been quite a revelation, however I think the band's name may be a little user-unfriendly, perhaps. I would like them and rate them a lot more if there weren't so many strong similarities to Marillion in their music, but then I suppose you have to expect that any band who plays progressive rock is going to have listened to, soaked in and eventually be influenced one way or the other by the greats. Nine Stones Close do at least retain enough of their own individuality to hold their own identity, and like Big Big Train reviewed recently were accused of sounding very Genesis-like, there's probably nobody who doesn't know Marillion's work who would not agree they do sound a lot like them at many times. Mind you, I said this about Knight Area too (and it's true) but that didn't stop me from enjoying the music this band has to offer, nor having no hesitation in naming it one of my favourite albums of 2012.
Don't let it stop you, either.