RITES AT DAWN

First of all: this doesn't sound a bit like FRAGILE or CLOSE TO THE EDGE; the first thirty minutes or so kept reminding me (for some reason) of "Beyond and Before", the opening track of Yes's first album!

Secondly: are these guys for real? I know some of them are musicologists who love vintage keyboards and play krumhorns in their spare time, but... When they write songs about rabbits, fawns and faeries; when they pose for an inner-sleeve photograph with a stuffed owl, a stuffed fox and a load of (apparently) plastic food on the table, what are they trying to tell us?

What I mean is that most of Wobbler's MUSIC can't be faulted ("La Bealtaine", the first extended piece here, verges on the tuneless - but let that pass). The bass, the drums, the guitars, the keyboards and everything else is carefully thought through. You can listen to this music again and again but you'll always find new things, and that's just the way it should be. When you finally reach "The River", the last extended piece on the album, it's... it's probably the best Yes-type composition to emerge from anywhere since Yes themselves came up with DRAMA!

But is it earth-shattering music? I tend to think NOT. I can't help comparing RITES AT DAWN with Big Big Train's ENGLISH ELECTRIC (part one) which sounded oh so passionate and earnest, and I must conclude something's missing: Wobbler never move me. What a shame.

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