NICK MAGNUS

Instrumental musical art

With some vocal units, and parts of rock here and there. Of course, excel and dominate Magnus keyboards and synthesizers. Very well accompanied by the Hackett brothers, and Geoff Whitehorn on guitar.

My disappointment lies in the sampled drums and bass, and ghostly vocals towards the end. Marduk is one of two songs with lyrics, sung mostly by Anthony Patterson. Brother Sun Sister Moon is another song with lyrics and is a bit more noticeable, for me.

Worth mentioning that in many parts of the album the drums achieve a good accompaniment, as in the first two issues, and Seven Hands of Time.

Sophia's Song is a delight that contains good licks with flute and well sung by Clare Brigstocke and enjoyable parts of viola and violin too. Beautiful!

Something similar happens with Double Helix, although instrumental, and less extensive. With nice flute on a keyboard and acoustic guitar.

Seven Hands of Time has the unmistakable involvement of Steve Hackett, as well as the final three minutes to close in good form The Power of Reason, and also the work.

It's an album somewhat varied, but undoubtedly very tasteful.

British keyboardist,born in Emsworth, Hampshire in 1955.He started his career next to Robert John Godfrey with The Enid,which he left in 1976 to join the progresive rock band Autumn.By 1978 Autumn had disbandeed and the future found Nick Magnus next to Steve Hackett,with whom he spent eleven years both on studio and on stage.During the 80's he would also work as a session keyboardist for various artists,among them Renaissance,Peter Bardens of Camel and Chris Rea.Since 1990 Nick Magnus followed a personal career and in 1993 he released his debut album ''Straight On Till Morning'' on Voiceprint.

Nick plays and arranges all instruments on this album,except on a couple of tracks,where he is helped by guitarist Jay Stapley of Roger Waters and Mike Oldfield fame.The instrumental album has a dreamy and optimistic view all the way with melodic solos on guitars and ethereal keyboards and piano,often with an evident symphonic tendency.However the overall sound is not that adventurous.It has a strong commercial vibe met also both in Hackett's and Oldfield's later works with Magnus only trying to produce pleasant,cheesy and happy pieces of orchestrated music despite his good skills,while part of his keyboard work sounds very cheap.Additionally the sampled flutes,percussion and wind instruments sounds very dull as well.The lack of additional instruments is a matter of discussion too.On the other hand most of them are well-arranged,the production is bright and clear and some of them contain hints of good Symphonic Rock music with a New Age atmosphere.And the guitars,where present,are fine, producing some good melodies.

''Straight On Till Morning'' is a classic example of an albumcontaining all the light mistakes of a debut as well as a one-man project.One-dimensional style with plenty of ups and downs,the album has good chances to be likeable only as background music.Not exactly recommended,except you search for some good and pleasant background music.

This is a pleasant surprise, and one of the highlights of 2010, a year which, musically, is shaping up to be a very good one.

Magnus was at the back of my mind as a former keyboard player with Steve Hackett and with his time with The Enid, but I wasn't aware he was recording as a solo artist until I saw reviews for this album on the site.

To be honest, I took a punt and brought this album solely because the great Hackett brothers themselves feature largely on this work, and, given I have all of Steve's solo work, I figured that I would get this by way of completing his work.

I am, though, exceptionally happy to report that this album is not a Hackett lite project. This is very much the work of an extremely talented songwriter and musician, who just happened to have some exceptional guests appearing with him.

Of course, you can hear similarities. The opening track, for example, which is also the title track, would certainly not sound out of place on any Hackett solo work.

The instrumentation throughout is excellent, and this is very much reflected in the instrumental Twenty Summers, which has some very good interplay between percussion and keyboards. Magnus is a very good keyboard player, of that you can be sure. This is also evidenced on Crimewave Monkeys, a track which is reminiscent, to me, of Genesis circa the self titled album and, maybe, Abacab. Certainly, the dark feel of this track would not feel out of place, and this is easily the closest Magnus comes to sounding like Banks on the album.

There is only one track in excess of eight minutes here, and that is the title track. The rest all come in at less than seven and a half minutes, and with the shortest, Identity Theft, which has vocals by Magnus himself, there is almost a commercial single waiting to come out. Unfortunately, it is pleasant, without being essential.

The remainder of the vocals are handled by Tony Patterson, Pete Hicks, Andy Neve, and Linda John-Pierre. The latter sings beautifully on The Others, accompanied by delicate and understated acoustic guitar, keyboards, and orchestral simulation. This is, perhaps, the highlight of the album for me, and I will have to explore more fully this lady's work, because she is a huge talent. The chorus is uplifting and sumptuous, and we are treated to Hackett magic in the electric solo. The Hackett solo in Babel Tower is also magnificent.

Other reviewers, by the way, have compared Patterson to Gabriel. I suppose this is true in the almost Lamb like passage in Babel Tower, but, when he sings normally, as it were, there is not really much comparison. He is good enough in his own right to stand alone, anyway, and this is definitely witnessed in the album closer Howl The Stars Down, on which he shines.

All in all, a very good album, thoroughly enjoyable, and a clear attempt to appeal to a wide range of symphonic prog fans, whilst also wanting to pick up those who enjoy the lighter crossover market.

Ratings are always difficult. Probably 3.5 stars in reality, but, then again, four stars signifies an excellent addition to any prog rock collection, and this would certainly qualify for that.

"Hexameron" was a nice progressive rock work slightly in the vein of Genesis with a somewhat melancholy and even darker edge, as one can find in the repertoire of Steve Hackett and IQ, the whole having symphonic arrangements and an original musical colour. We could say that "Children of another god" starts on the same basis but with subtle changes. This record contains more vocal songs (8 out of 9), even though some of them leave a wide space for instrumental sections, and the melodies are even stronger and more accessible at the same time. And the production is also superior. Nine pieces more or less linked together are featured on this CD, which is approximately 50-minute-long. Among the singers, we have Tony Patterson from ReGenesis, already present on "Hexameron" and John Hackett's "Checking out of London". Here, he doesn't especially emulates Peter Gabriel, but chose to use a clearer and rather soft range. Pete Hicks, whose clear and high-pitched voice has hardly changed in 30 years, is featured on the two most dynamic songs. Andy Neve, who's got also a clear and medium range, is working wonders on the lengthy "The colony is king", a track featuring more instrumental sections with a classical tinge. The female singer Linda John-Pierre enlightens a splendid orchestral ballad thanks to her warm and deep voice and finally, Nick himself, delivers some soft and clear, fairly convincing vocals on "Identity theft", a short, orchestral but slightly jazzy song, also featuring the double-bass player Glenn Tollet (ex-The Enid). The vocals are particularly refined, with a lot of harmonies, as on some of Steve Hackett's songs, past or recent. The album starts with the title track, that is also the longest one (8:27), a kind of orchestral bolero with an unforgettable melody, a beautiful instrumental part and several rhythm changes in the middle. Original and magnificent at the same time. This symphonic edge will come back many times all through the album. "Doctor Prometheus" is slightly more rocky, faster, with some nice instrumental developments ; that's the same for "Crimewaves monkeys" and "Tower of Babel" - at least in its first half, as the main theme of "Children" rises again in the second part. The instrumental "Twenty summers" (4:10) isn't that long but really charming and progressive nonetheless, including numerous themes, light or more serious, a rich mix featuring jerky and slower, heavier rhythms, piano and a pastoral flute, acoustic guitar, powerful organ and swirling synths. One of the highlights of the album is "The colony", without a doubt. This long song is based on different rhythms, a military march then a waltz, features some dark epic moments and two soaring electric guitar solos by Steve Hackett plus some pastoral flute by his brother John, some wonderful mellotron strings and a virtual orchestra. And finally, Magnus managed to fill his slower songs with some palpable emotion, as on the richly orchestrated "The others", featuring the lyrical and warm voice of Linda John-Pierre or the melancholy finale "Howl the stars down" where Tony Patterson is deeply moving. Some melodies like these should sell by millions, honestly. One has to read the credits to realize that everything or almost is done with keyboards and synths. Though, drums, bass and electric or acoustic guitars are incredibly realistic? but virtual - everywhere except on "The colony" where it is actually Steve Hackett who plays ! Magnus achieved a true tour-de-force in this department ! This record hasn't got in any way the faults of those done by keyboard players who do everything by themselves. About keyboards, by the way, Magnus found some new and even more splendid sonic colours to depict his musical ideas. He's got a whole array of textures at his disposal : mellotron strings and choirs, virtual orchestra, minimoog, Hammond organ, electric piano with a brilliant Yamaha CS80-type sound, and some more abstract textures. As he points out himself, Magnus prefers to build some big symphonic instrumental parts, rather than letting himself go into swirling keyboard solos, and that's not a bad thing. Nick Magnus the composer is far superior compared to so many virtuosos whose output isn't on par with their technical abilities that they show off with more or less taste. But all this doesn't exclude a few inspired solos by him anyway ! If you like symphonic progressive rock or just the most romantic side of Genesis, Tony Banks and Steve Hackett, this record is the best you could imagine?. a work of amazing melodic, emotional, and technical quality. This is The Unexpected Gem of 2010 ! Nick is unfortunately not seeling much , even compared to progressive rock artists like IQ or Pallas.. So please do the effort to buy directly from him, if possible. He is as modest as talented and we should support him if we want to hear something as magnificent as this album again in the future.

I didn´t remember who Nick magnus was when I saw this album on the store shelf. It was only later that I remebered he was the keyboards player with ex Genesis guitarrist Steve Hackett in the late 70´s. Also I came to know he was also a member of The Enid at the very beginning, but he left before that group had released their first LP (I recently read that some early recordings did appear on the market as an mini CD, more than 20 years later). I was glad to see that Hackett, algong with his brother John, were playing in this CD. That spurred my curiosity.

Children Of Another God is a concept album criticizing today´s techonologycal way towards massification and conformism. As a whole I found it to be very interesting and varied, although, like on most concept albums, the flow is a bit uneven on some parts as the music has to follow the lyrics. However, there are great moments too, with a lot of guitar playing here, something not very common concerning keyboardists solo effords. Not surprisingly there are several moments when the music sounds like Steve Hackett´s works (Spectral Mornings and Defector specially), with a sort fo mid 70´s Genesis thrown in for good measure (beautiful mellotrons on the first two tracks). On the other side, the vocals and a few of the arrangements reminds me a lot of Alan Parsons Project around the time of I Robot and Eve.

Production is top notch and the musicianship is simply excellent. The cover is bad, but I can live with that.

All in all I found this album extremely pleasant and charming, even if the last segment of the CD is not as captivating as the first and middle parts. A great find and if you´re a fan of Steve Hackett, Genesis and Alan Parsons, you should check this out. You won´t be disappointed. My rating keeps shifting form 3,5 to 4 stars when I listen to this record. I´ll give it four since it is more than just good.

Starting with magically enchanted eponymous track, Nick Magnus proves that he isn't minor Rock person, but rather one of the "better" guys in business. Like reminder of childhood dreams and lullabies, this song has enormous nostalgic power. These melodies in general are basically simple, just edited and worked out that they are closing Prog goal in order to be interesting.

Some of you may remember one PC game released about 10 years ago, NOLF - No One Lives Forever. There is also prominent use of Xylophone, same as here (or at least something that sounds like Xylophone), but in the game it was supposed to bring back the atmosphere of 50's / 60's spy movies. Here, strings are added (or synths that sounds similar) and also flute is trying to do something and this symphony it creates works actually quite well. Very well.

Sadly, sometimes songs get too annoying like in case of Doctor Prometheus - I wasn't able to overcome this after so many listens that I think it's something inevitable for me.

Probably the best example would be first part of The Colony Is King. In the middle this song breaks down to more dark repeat of first part. Crimewave Monkeys sounds like, ahem, soundtrack of some kind of TV movie or Army Action video game.

There is also something like main theme repeated through some tracks, most prominently first and last of course, but others do have these traits too, even often edited, changed.

4(+) as I said, this record has big nostalgic value for me and that's something that I can appreciate.

A child of a minor Rock God

Nick Magnus is most known for his membership in Steve Hackett's backing band in the late 70's and early 80's where he played keyboards on such important albums as Spectral Mornings, Defector and Highly Strung. Interestingly, four out of six members of the Spectral Mornings and Defector line up is present on this very album, including Steve and John Hackett on guitar and flute respectively and vocalist Pete Hicks and, of course, Magnus himself. In fairness, all of these people were also involved in Magnus' previous solo effort Hexameron, but the present album is much more in the spirit of what they did on those classic Hackett albums (and much better too). The Colony Is King in particular would have fitted very well on one of Steve Hackett's more recent albums with his very distinctive guitar sound and his brother John's wonderful flutes. Steve Hackett is credited only on this one track and no other guitarist is credited, but there clearly are guitars on the other tracks!

Magnus begun his musical career playing with The Enid in the mid 70's, but he left that band in 1976 just before they released their debut album In The Region Of The Summer Stars. To my knowledge there are no recordings by The Enid that feature Magnus, but I assume it was in his Enid days that he befriended Glenn Tollett who appears here on upright bass on the track Identity Theft. Other guests appearing on this album are vocalists Tony Patterson, Linda John-Pierre and Andy Neve. Magnus himself sings lead vocals on one track too which means that there are as many as five different lead vocalists on this album! This diversity of vocalists makes the album a bit less coherent than it might have been had he opted for one or two vocalists only. Despite this the album is held together well by being a concept album. The lyrics by Dick Foster constitute a protest against collectivism and conformism and an implicit defence of individualism. There is also a theme about the virtues and problems of the information society.

The three tracks on which Peter Gabriel-impersonator Tony Patterson sings are for me among the best ones, most notably the excellent opening title track which has something of a Genesis sound and approach but also Babel Tower which repeats the main theme from the title track to great effect. Patterson also sings the closing beautiful piano-based ballad Howl Down The Stars.

The most progressive tracks are the title track, the instrumental Twenty Summers and The Colony Is King. Since these tracks are rather evenly spread over the album it is kept interesting throughout. The two songs sung by Pete Hicks are slightly more towards the Pop Rock direction, particularly Doctor Prometheus, but by no means bad songs and not devoid of progressive tendencies. These songs have more of an Alan Parsons Project sound. The Others, sung by Linda John-Pierre, on the other hand, is the track that fits in the least but it is saved by some nice acoustic guitar playing.

Children Of Another God was a positive surprise for me. It was a definite improvement over Magnus' previous solo effort, Hexameron, and an excellent addition to any collection that already holds the albums Magnus made with Steve Hackett. Indeed, the sound of these albums gives a clue to what is found here and it is clear that Magnus had a large influence on the sound of those albums. Too bad the cover art is quite awful (but it comes in a nice digi-pack with a nice booklet with full lyrics and pictures of the guest artists)!

It must have taken more than six days to make this album?!

Hexameron is, if I'm not mistaken, the collective name given to the six days it took God to create the world as described in The Book Of Genesis in The Bible.

As I mentioned in my review of his latest album, Children Of Another God, Nick Magnus is most known for his membership in Steve Hackett's backing band in the late 70's and early 80's where he played keyboards on such important Hackett albums as Spectral Mornings, Defector and Highly Strung. Like on Children Of Another God, no less than four out of six members of the Spectral Mornings and Defector line-up is present on this album, including Steve and John Hackett on guitars and flutes respectively and vocalist Pete Hicks and, of course, Magnus himself. But despite Magnus' background with Hackett and the presence of the two Hackett brothers as well as Pete Hicks on this album, the music found here is not really a lost Steve Hackett album (even if Steve adds some wonderful guitar lines to a few songs). The music here is closer to Mike Oldfield and even sometimes Vangelis than to anything Hackett. The music here is symphonic in structure but rather soft and laid-back for the most part with some Celtic and "New-Age" influences. It is hard to put a label on the music; though both "symphonic" and, in some sense, "progressive", I hesitate to call the majority of it Symphonic Prog.

Hexameron opens with two rather long instrumentals that together run for more than 15 minutes. This gives you the impression that the whole album is instrumental, but it isn't. Though the two first tracks are more than listenable, I get the feeling that the album doesn't really get off the ground until the third track, Marduk, which is the first vocal number and the first I would call Rock. The lead vocals on the first part of the song are by Peter Gabriel-sound-a-like Tony Patterson which makes this song sound like a lost Genesis song. It is, however, a conceptual song that also has lead vocal parts by others playing different roles. It is one of the highlights of the album for me and probably the most progressive song.

Sophia's Song is a lovely Celtic-sounding tune with nice female vocals but hardly progressive in any sense of the term. The strong diversity of the songs of this album makes me feel that the album as a whole lacks direction. Magnus is evidently a very good composer, but he wasn't quite sure what kind of album he wanted to make here. Next up is a wonderful Classical instrumental that is dominated by the two Hackett brothers on acoustic guitar and flute respectively. This one would have fitted nicely on almost any Steve Hackett album. Brother Sun Sister Moon is sung by Pete Hicks and is more of a melodic Pop Rock song. The two last tracks are back again to the style of the first two even if Seven Hands Of Time have some vocals.

Overall this is a good and quite beautiful album with no weak tracks as such. However, as I said above there seems to be no real direction and the individual songs take you to radically different places. Limiting the number of lead vocalists or opting for a wholly instrumental album might have benefitted this material. Having this said, I must add that this will certainly please any fan of the softer side of Symphonic Rock.

The first two songs on this fantastic disc - the title track and "Dr Prometheus" - appeared on Nick Magnus' YouTube channel (an essential thing these days). I was alerted to it via the former website of Steve Hackett (Camino Records) and I pre-ordered the disc on the strength of those two tracks alone. Later another track was added ("Identity Theft") and I guess it is fair to say that this one lowered expectations a bit. But when the CD arrived I enjoyed it very much. (Interestingly, the video-version of "Dr Prometheus" is stronger than the full CD-version.)

I think this would have been a five-star had all songs been like the first two. The album looses steam a little midway, but all up it is a fine effort that fits the "Excellent addition to any prog rock music collection" label to perfection. Highly recommended.

There are mostly some fine moments here, the disc kicking off on a tremendous pace such as when Hackett brothers (also John on flute) show up with their usual brio on the highly movie soundtrackish opener "Singularity" . Second strong chapter: "Dancing on the Waters" starts out swirling in lush atmospherics, featuring the semi-legendary guitarist Geoff Whitehorn and Magnus' wakemanesque piano work. But if you enjoy (as I do) some fanfare bombast (the choir mellotron fade out) and operatic wailing, then Clare Brigstocke's soprano voice will enthrall you. "Marduk" is where the first questioning creeps in, sounding more like Alan Parsons Project than anything else, Tony Patterson's voice is way less convincing throughout (a rather laughable Gabriel imitation, should have left the mike to Clare !) and some wimpy synthesizer soloing that recalls Monterrey Jack rather than Moog. A few pretty decent Whitehorn guitar leads save this from oblivion, as the 9 minutes labor on. "Sophia's Song" is an overtly direct Celtic reference, with some resonating Gaelic vocal work from Siobhan McCarthy, remindful of Maggie Reilly's work with Oldfield, as well as a dash of languid violin that turns this into a lovely piece that has more than just merit, it's a majestic highlight! John Hackett's delicate flute leads the highly bucolic "Double Helix", a medieval interlude that pleases. Here is the second difficulty: "Brother Sun Sister Moon" possesses a main melody that is impressive but on the fence of being another Alan Parsons template. There is a poppy veneer that makes it somehow a tad corny. It does not happen often that I get into a conundrum, unable to make a direct simple assessment of a song but this is one of those slippery prog soap bars I just can't come to grips with! Is it great? No, Is it lousy? No. Then what in blazing Mellotrons is it? Perhaps it has to do with some half baking tendencies (that seem to also occasionally occur with Steve Hackett!) mainly due to those programmed drums that give everything a tinny tone that is remindful of a Buggles title , "the Age of Plastic". Get a real drummer, mate. With "Seven Hands of Time" we dive straight into Hackettish splendor, a monster instrumental (with more of the crappy tin drums) but with Steve unleashing a typical crushingly gorgeous solo, sandwiched between rich "temporal effects". The rousing finale "The Power of Reason" is another Hackett brothers extravaganza, loaded with dignified interventions: Clare is back to her wailing, gigantic group choir work, a couple of alluring Steve ventures, some ravishing piano work, sultry flute from John and an overall sense of prog mastery. Frankly, it's the 2 tough cuts described earlier that prevent this from penta-stardom. Ditch the PC and get some tom toms! 4 hacketts