WINTER

Winter is an obscure Neo-Prog band from Northern Ireland that was formed in 1987 and disbanded already in 1991 after only one official release. Across The Circle's Edge - which according to the band's official website is an EP, but according to Prog Archives is a full length studio album - was released on vinyl in 1990 and then two years later on CD. Additional keyboard parts have since been added to the recordings, but as I have never heard the original releases, I cannot say with certainty if this was an improvement or not, but I strongly suspect it was. All six tracks can now be streamed for free on the band's website and the same website states that the album will be available for download on iTunes shortly. It remains unclear if there are any plans for the band to get back together, but it is fair to say that if it wasn't for the Internet people like me would never have heard of the band. It is all thanks to "technocracy", maybe?

The just over 30 minutes of good music featured on Across The Circle's Edge is very much rooted in the sound of the (early) 80's British Neo-Prog scene. While the very good vocals are certainly more than a bit Fish-like (but also reminding me of Ric Ocasek of the American New Wave band The Cars, for some reason!), the overall sound reminds me more of Pallas (especially The Sentinel) than of Marillion. The music is dark, theatrical, "futuristic" (from the perspective of the 1980's, at least) and occasionally almost metallic, but at the same time strongly melodic and even slightly poppy at times. The song Toybox reminds strongly of the Australian Neo-Prog band Aragon's excellent Rocking Horse piece (the song even contains the words 'rocking horse').

The production is not perfect (neither was Pallas' The Sentinel), but the songs are all good and engaging and the instruments and vocals sound very good. Across The Circle's Edge is a promising and enjoying recording and it would indeed have been interesting to hear more from this unknown band. One idea would perhaps be to re-record these old songs and add another handful of new songs to create a proper full length album according to today's requirements of running length and production? In an age where lots of old bands unexpectedly resurface, nothing can be deemed an impossibility anymore I guess.

Certainly a worthy listen for any Neo-Prog fan

Couple of factoids about the band/album

Rab Beggs has been most heavily influenced by Gary Moore, and stills plays in Belfast to this day Close your eyes and Winter received airplay on Tommy Vance's friday night rockshow The drumming on Toybox is straight through and was done on the first take ! Jonnie Lennie is a huge Pavarotti fan

By way of putting the record straight! As a close friend of the band, back in the 1990s - let me tell you the REAL story of Irish rock band - WINTER.

The music you hear in this excellent CD is infact simply a re-master of the original E.P. Vinyl RECORD that was recorded in Ireland in 1991. Infact it was the original band members who played every note on this E.P. [and hence the CD].

John Lennie - Vocals Rab Beggs - Guitars Phil Murray - keyboards/piano Rick Loyer - Bass John Murphy - Drums

ALL SONGS were written and owned by the orginal WINTER line up.

Unfortunately the original line up broke up before the CD version of the E.P. was re-mastered in Holland and the CD was credited with new members on there but they had NO PART whatsoever in recording the songs you hear on the CD -- it is all recorded by the original WINTER line up.

So ACROSS THE CIRCLE'S EDGE has quite a colourful history. The CD itself suffered from the fact that the guys had run out of money to mix it properly so in essence there are quite a lot of Phil Murray's keyboard work [and original keyboard sounds] and Rab Beggs guitar work missing from the final mix -- all due to time constraints in the studio. Rick Loyer had a brilliant bass line intro to Toybox that was cut back to a fade in for the track Winter for example. the irony is, that the intial cassette version of these songs, recorded as a guide line for the E.P. Vinyl recording is actually BETTER than the final CD -- simply because it contained all the missing elements mentioned above.

The Blazing guitar playing - referred to in one of the earlier reviews - WAS NOT the work of Andy Ryan at all, but the genius of RAB BEGGS, the original guitarist. The same goes for the awesoome drumming - it is entirely the work of the brilliant JOHN MURPHY. Unfortunately after the band split - neither Beggs or Murphy got credited with the playing on the CD -- which was a terrible shame -- Phil Murray played all keyboards despite having left the band prior to the CD release.

Winter certainly were a superb band and could and should have secured a recording contract at the time. One of the finest Irish live band's of the past 20 years actually.

"Technocracy" opens with a cool guitar melody as drums come in and build. Vocals are next. They are strong and on the deeper side. Keys come and go. Amazing Lifeson-like guitar solo after 2 1/2 minutes. Great uptempo opener. "The Betrayal Of Reason" sounds like an eighties tune because of the vocal style and synths. This is my least favourite track, although it ends really well thanks to the guitar work of Rabb Beggs. "Close Your Eyes" is very much MARILLION influenced. After an uptempo intro with prominant drums and synths, the song settles right down with vocals, synths, and acoustic guitar. When it calms down it sounds so good. The album title is a line in the chorus. Some grinding guitar after 3 minutes turns into a killer solo. The tempo picks up before 4 minutes. Some theatrical vocals later. The best song so far.

"Evengate" is a short ballad of piano and fragile vocals. Quite touching actually. "Toybox" is almost 9 minutes long and is my favourite song on here. After a short atmospheric intro, pounding drums and a full sound arrive a minute in. Some strong vocals in this uptempo, catchy track. It calms down like in the intro 4 minutes in with FISH-like vocals. The song is building before 5 minutes. It calms back down a minute later. Check out the blazing guitar solo to follow. I always find it kind of cool when a band names a song after themselves. "Winter" is the only instrumental track on the album, and it's one of the better songs on here. After a tasteful intro we get a full sound including soaring guitar before a minute. Some more lightspeed playing by Beggs on guitar that simply goes on and on as drums pound away. Just an incredible display of guitar work.

If your a Neo-Prog fan try to track this one down. A solid 3 stars. I'm surprised this is their only recording, these guys were really good.

I saw the band a few times more after that, although they did have some line-up problems and although they did also release a cassette of new material a few years after this CD that was the end, which to my ears is a great shame.

I came across the other review when I was searching the web to see if I could find out any more about them, as this really was one of the best SI releases (and there were more good than absolute crap). Well worth picking it up if you can find it.

Check out E-Bay for this small gem if you don't have a problem with exciting Marillion/Rush wannabees.