RIVERMAN VOL 1

Tale was a solo project of South-African multi-instrumentalist Rob Granville.He wrote and produced all the material for his first CD ''Riverman vol.1'', additionally Granville plays all instruments and handles the vocals, except some female choirs.The album was released in 1994 on Voyage Productions.

To describe the music as a complete PINK FLOYD rip-off would'nt be far from truth.Granville borrows major elements from the mid-70's period of his British masters and tries to create an album full of FLOYD-ian fundamentals.Unfortunately he falls short with this effort.The music is too mellow and rarely takes off, the arrangements are pretty secure and the whole material rather forgettable.Alternations between acoustic moments and calm electric passages with vocals surrounding constantly are pretty much what this album is all about.A few organ/piano parts, a couple of sax solos and just a dose of flutes will not save this work from being a mediocre one.A couple of tracks escape from the rules though, like ''Rapidly shaking'' or ''More'', where Granville puts eventually some energy and decent inspiration in his efforts with the soaring guitar work being dominant and quite nice.However the album still has this cheap ''PINK FLOYD wannabe'' somber mood from start to finish, not allowing the listener to appreciate the music.

Not all clones are equally good and moreover not all bands sound original with Tale belonging to the black list of the category.Recommended only for fans of smooth FLOYD-ian soundscapes.