HIGH SPY

Mark has always been a great keyboard player totally suited to the neo prog genre, happy to provide swathes of chords as a backing, or be much more to the fore with repeated melodies designed to grab attention and be the perfect support to the crunch of the guitar. This is melodic and a load of fun while also incorporating some American rock stylings to make something which is enjoyable and very easy to get into from the very first play. The album is only 40 minutes long, with six songs, and that is just right for this ? it does not outstay the welcome and I can only hope that now they have a new line-up they will not wait too long before releasing the next one. While many other bands from the day have either fallen to the wayside or have progressed their style into something else, High Spy sound as if they have been brought here by a Tardis, as this is so similar to what I was being sent in the early 90's, and is a solid joy throughout.

From the blistering intro of opening track 'Fade', right until the distant fade (no pun intended) of the last notes of the epic closing track 'Circles & Squares', they fill just under 40 minutes with six songs full of dynamic and powerful music.

And the emphasis here is on the songs. Whereas some (most?) prog tends to be a showcase for virtuosity (aka a need to show off), High Spy perform as a tight unit. Sure, there are some fantastic solos from Mark Price on keyboards and Rich Pointon on guitar (check out the solo on 'Watching'), but the overall feel is of a cohesive band performing for each other to achieve the best results possible.

Influence-wise, there's certainly more than a hint of '80s Rush - especially in the rhythm section - but that's never a bad thing. As well as this, there are elements of The Police at their energetic best mixed in with keyboard textures that evoke the great late '70s/early '8os early synth music of Gary Numan, Ultravox et al. On top of all of this are the wonderfully impassioned vocals of Jeff Henson, who delivers the thought provoking lyrics with great aplomb throughout.

It's great to hear such mature and intelligent rock music still being created in this day and age. High Spy do it brilliantly.

This is a great album. Buy it now.

4.5 Stars

This is solid neo prog, and in many ways sounds as if it was recorded some 25 years ago, and if you had been as involved in the UK scene as I was, you would have heard quite a lot of material like this, particularly on the upbeat 'I Am The Code'. It is songs like this where the band allow themselves to rock and power through that they come through best, but on the slower songs there are some issues. In many ways there are similarities to early Big Big Train as many of us had problems with the vocals, and the same is true here. When the band is buzzing along then Ade gets away with it, but on songs such as 'She Knows' he is definitely struggling. One gets the impression these slower numbers would come across better at a gig, but here they appear to meander and there is no real sense of direction or purpose. I have enjoyed Mark Price's keyboard playing for more than quarter of a century, but I just can't get on with this album at all. Maybe next time.

Since this album Rick Maper has also departed, to be replaced by Tony Hall from Grace, and there is a new album out. It will certainly be interesting to hear what that is like, but if you enjoy solid neo prog then all of these are worth hearing, although for me the stand out is 'Ignition'

"Arrival" has swathes of keyboards, but before one thinks it may be a Mark Price solo, it turns into a driving rock instrumental where they appear to egging each other on to drive it that little bit harder and faster. There are few bands who can still say they play classic neo prog, as many have moved away from the scene, while High Spy are moving very much into the centre. This is an album to be played with a smile on the face, and it makes me think of all the venues I have been to see bands like in the past. They may not be the poshest of places, and they may not be filled with the most fans, but some of my best gigs have been in places like this, and with this album High Spy show they are having fun and whoever goes to see them will enjoy it just as much as them. Fans of early Pallas, Abel Ganz, Freewill and Galahad will get a lot from this.

If the debut felt as if the band were trying to find their feet and make something available, this is much more a band knowing what they wanted to achieve, and the confidence is there for everyone to hear. The songs are commercial, yet not mainstream, so they are easy to listen to and enjoy without feeling that the band was deliberately aiming for a certain audience but instead were doing exactly what they wanted. Ballads such as "Just In Time" give way to harmonised numbers like "Joy Peace Love" which one can easily imagine going down a storm at gigs with catchy choruses and great hooks. This is the type of fun album which was coming from the likes of Abel Ganz and Comedy of Errors back in the day, and I am pleased I finally heard it.

I have always enjoyed Mark's playing, and saw him live with Grace many times, and also felt that Framework would have gone on to significant success if he hadn't taken the opportunity to join one of the finest prog acts of the Nineties. So, it was interesting for me to come across this album so many years after it was originally released, especially as I knew some of the songs already. In many ways it is a hard album to review, as this does feel more like a collection of songs as opposed to a complete album. Each song is performed well, but while neo prog is at its heart, there are also others which are far more straightforward and almost Seventies in style. It is the ones where they allow themselves to spread their musical wings which are the finest, but for some reason the bass isn't as high as it could be which gives the sound a distinctive feel which doesn't always work. But here was a band finding their collective feet, and this was recorded quite quickly after the band formed, so what would the next one be like?

The album "The Code" consists of 11 tracks that take up a total run time of just over 54 minutes. The music on this album has got the basic ingredients for the neo-prog sound, lots of keyboards and a concept story based on a sci-fi theme with romantic elements that involve an android or alien of some type. The music is quite lyric heavy, which, in this case, is a big mark against the album because the vocals are weak and lacking in emotion. The music is quite typical sounding for Neo-prog, except for one major issue; there is not a lot of progressiveness to it. The music is in basic measure, the melodies are pretty simple and it's not that engaging.

"I am the Code" tries to amp up the heaviness, but the guitars are quite muddled sounding, and the vocals are not convincing enough. "Love Your Face" is one of the singles released from the album, and, granted, it has a nice ballad like feel, but it is missing a hook or anything really interesting that would draw attention. There is a guest female vocalist on this track, but seems to be off-key.

At the end of the album, the 3 singles from the album are presented again, this time in their single versions. Quite frankly, they aren't any better than the regular album versions.

Overall, the album isn't very interesting. The vocals are weak, the music is fairly typical of the Neo-prog sound, except they left the prog part of it off, the music is not engaging or really that powerful, the guitars sound muffled and the keyboards are too bright, and so what we end up with is an average sounding band with bad mixing and production. Not to be harsh, but this is not one that I would pay much attention to.