FROM THE DUST TO THE STARS

It must be twenty years since Jeremy Morris and I were first in contact. Back then his albums were released on cassette (I still have all of them ' just nothing to play them on), and often on his own label Jam Recordings, but his latest effort has been released by Mals and sees him move slightly more into the prog field. Of course, being Jeremy there are also huge slabs of psychedelia and power pop and to be honest it is the former that takes centre stage for much of this album. Also, given that there is a photo of three musicians on the rear of the case one could think that this is a group effort, but apart from two guys sharing drum duties, and recording colleague Guillermo Cazenave on one song, this is very much a solo effort. Jeremy lists his own instruments as vocals, guitars, mellotron, bass, synthesizers, piano, dulcimer, drums before he puts 'etc'. Yes, he is very much a one man band.

When Jeremy was telling me about this he did tell me that it was a prog album (Jeremy releases normally three or four albums a year, in many different styles) but I'm really not so sure. There are some proggy elements (anything with a mellotron is almost automatically prog isn't it?) but it is much more a psychedelic piece, with some wonderful layering and atmospheric keyboards and vocals. At times it is quite dreamy, while at others it contains some of the most direct electric guitar solos I have ever heard Jeremy record. Lyrically this is very much a Christian album, with Jeremy using his words to get across some strong messages.

Overall, The result is yet another Jeremy album that it is possible to listen to with a smile on the face ' it may not be what a lot of people think of as a prog album, but whatever tag you wish to put on this it is a damn fine listen.

Ready for some nice laid back space rock? Yep, it's what this is all about. Jeremy delivers a nice bunch of groovy riffs, good melodies and psychedelic ambient interludes. From the Dust to the Stars may not blow your mind by its uniqueness, but few albums do that anyway. For me this album was a pleasant surprise, that does not try to be anything more than it is. At times I'm reminded of Ayreon and Hawkwind, but I'm not very familiar with this kind of music so not many bands come to mind. Lyrically it is a nice uplifting, not too serious sort of piece. My favourite tracks are Shake the Dust and beginner The Great Escape. Moderately recommended for everyone, and highly recommended for those who dig spacey music.

US composer and multi-instrumentalist Jeremy MORRIS has been a productive artist since he released his debut album back in the 1980's. With a career ongoing for some 30 years by now, his back catalog is fairly immense at this point. "From the Dust to the Stars" is his most recent production at the time of writing, and was released by the Russian label MALS Records in the late summer of 2012.

Psychedelic progressive rock of an accessible nature with subtle cosmic flavoring and a few but notable nods in the direction of The Beatles is what Jeremy provides on "From the Dust to the Stars". An album that should appeal to those who enjoy their vintage sounding psychedelic rock quite nicely, with a fine array of cosmic-tinged textures by way of keyboard and Mellotron as the icing on the cake for those who enjoy material of this particular kind, and yet another strong production by this fine US artist.