A STEP INTO ELSEWHERE

A Step Into Elsewhere is Cirrus Bay's second album but the first one which they really stand by - their official website discounts the debut The Slipping of a Day as a grab-bag of various musical ideas developed over time. It seems that the core band members Bill Gillham and Sharra Acle really firmed up their ideas about what they actually wanted to do with this project in the meantime, and they decided to go for fairly straight-down-the-line neo-prog in a Genesis- influenced style with a few folkier elements creeping in thanks to Bill's use of mandolin and recorder. Sharra's vocals are quite nice in a mildly generic "woman in a prog band singing in a style not really much like Anne Haslam but vaguely intended to remind us of Haslam" way, and the release benefits from some interesting compositions. Not brilliant, but not half bad if you're into this particular style of neo-prog.