WHITE ROCK

A very good, if a little short CD. And quite underrated too. Although it was written mainly as a soundtrack for the winter games of Innsbruck, the music inside stands very much on its own and shows Wakeman in fine form. Save for the use of a choir a copuple of tracks, this is a totally instrumental record. The tracks are divided by some heavy synth driven themes, like the title track , and a few more introspective piano pieces. There are no orchestrations and all the instruments are played by Wakeman himself, with the precious help of Tony Fernandez on drums and percussion.

I regret not having paying much atention to it when this album was out. I thought it was just another soundtrack collection (and I haven´t exactly fallen in love with Rick´s previous adventure on that field with Lisztomania, if you know what I mean). However, White Rock shows Wakeman still pretty much at the height of his powers as songwriter, performer and arranger and many tunes here do remind me of his classic The Six Wives Of Henry VIII. Not only he shows great skill and knack for fine short symphonic pieces, but it has excellent percussion parts played by Fernandez.

Although I feel it does not reach the point where I feel too comfortable to give it a 4 star rating, it is indeed a work that stands very well along his more well known ones, like the aforementioned The Six Wives.... So I guess a 3,8 star rating is quite fitting. Very good, and I´m glad I found this CD recently and still have time to appreciate this little prog gem. If you like keyboard driven symphonic prog, you won´t be disappointed.