NIGHT AND DAY (WITH ANNIE HASLAM)

The wonderful voice of Annie Haslam always lends an air of quality to any song. For this EP she has teamed up with Magenta and the almost equally wonderful voice of Christina Booth. The title song is composed by Christina and Magenta's main man Rob Reed and, as Annie says on the cover, it is reminiscent of Renaissance's "Northern Lights". The highlight is the wonderful chorus which sticks in your brain from the first hearing.

The EP features 3 versions of the title track - the main version, an "Evening Mix" and a duet version with Christina. The fourth track is a Rob Reed instrumental called "Essence of Love".

The Evening Mix is basically the main version with most of the drums and guitars removed. This has the benefit of removing the slightly annoying bass drum which is mixed too high in the original and also highlights the beautiful Uilleann pipes and flutes. The duet version is pretty much as it says - Christina shares the vocals with Annie. Rob Reed's instrumental is nice if fairly inconsequential.

In summary, I have only heard the title song a few times but the chorus is firmly lodged in the old music memory now and if only this could get some radio time, I'm sure it could be a hit. Highly recommended for all Renaissance, Annie Haslam and Magenta fans.