OzTrude

So here I am in Adelaide, Australia, reading reviews and comments about some wonderful people that I'm lucky enough to know, and they are all wonderful people. To meet any of them you wouldn't know what amazing, accomplished, brilliant musicians they are. None of them are prone to bragging. In fact I'd known my friend Monty for some time before he even mentioned Unitopia after a gig he was playing with another band. Sitting out in the car park New Year's night 2005 with the band he was with that night, he just quietly asked if he could get my opinion on some music. So I sat in the passenger seat of his car and he put a CD on, that was the not quite completed More Than A Dream. That was also the night I fell in love with a prog rock band. Prog rock isn't exactly big here in Australia and doesn't get a huge following, and although I'd enjoyed to listening to some prog rock over the years, I wasn't as much a fan as "not adverse" to it. That all changed that night. About four songs in he asked if I liked it, somehow I got the words out that I not only liked it but was totally enthralled by it, that's when he told me that it was his band, and asked again if I really liked it.

Well of course when it became available I bought my own copy, which has been played over and over, I snapped up the 321 single, and bugged them for months prior to the release of The Garden wanting to know when it'd be available!

Well I'm still getting to know the band, but I can tell you that what you hear is who they are. I've read some reviews of The Garden that say certain songs could be shortened, or that they'd have been better off making one long CD and leaving some songs for later release and what I say to that is BOLLOCKS!! That'd be like suggesting they play minus one or two members. Most reviews I read, and there's so very many of them now, tell of magnificence, and use other such wonderful adjectives as: brilliant, stunning, fantastic, top class, triumphant, flawless, uplifting, glorious, extraordinary, sublime, beautiful, inspiring... and the list goes on. And I think it's all these things and more because they put so very much of themselves into every facet of every song. Oh I'm sure most musicians put their hearts into their songs, but there are hearts and there are hearts and all the members of Unitopia are incredible, sensitive, amazing, beautiful, complex people, as well as being overwhelmingly talented musicians and song/music-crafters. I say crafters rather than writers just because it just seems more apt. Yet while putting so much of themselves into their music, none of it is "about them", just the opposite it's about peace, love, hope for everyone, it's about seeing how you can make the world around you better and be better for it. The realization of the hopes and dreams we all share for a perfect peaceful world.

I don't have a standing favourite song on either album, some days I might favour one or two over others, but each song is a favourite of mine. The closest I could get to favourite is discovering that I have favourite parts of songs, sometimes the lyrics, sometimes the music and I find my heart quicken as the songs approach them. As an example, and it's only one of very, very many favourite parts, I like the sexy jazzy, bouncy feel with the combination of vocals and music in the beginning of the second chorus of Don't Give Up Love. There, how specific is that? Tongue

I'm more in love with Unitopia than ever and know that I'm very fortunate to not only have their music and to have met them, but to be allowed to call them my friends. For those of you who don't live here and may not get to meet Unitopia face to face, you can get to know them all in their music and be enriched by the meeting.