STORMS OVER LONDON TOWN

At about five years ago I witnessed a Mostly Autumn performance during a Dutch progrock festival. I was blown away by one of their guitar players who sounded like the second coming of David Gilmour! Soon I discovered the strong link between Mostly Autumn and Pink Floyd. On this live CD you can enjoy that very Floydian inspired guitarplay.

The first set delivers many bombastic and harder-edged songs: Out Of The Sky (beautiful Floydian slide guitar), Broken Glass (mid-tempo with fiery electric guitar layers), Answer The Question (heavy guitar riffs and pleasant piano play), Black Rain (powerful R&R guitar work, high pitched female vocals and a fiery guitar solo) and Never The Rainbow (bombastic featuring a swirling organ - and a biting guitar solo). Then the atmosphere turns into mellow in Distant Train with dreamy flute and a compelling wah-wah drenched guitar solo. Some other songs contain the emotional sounding Uillean pipes and the distinctive Mostly Autumn sound: bombastic and compelling featuring duo (male and female) vocals and Floydian guitar play (great soli at the level of Gilmour in Evergreen and Storms Over Still Water). The final track is the dreamy The Spirit Of Autumn Past (Part 1) with fragile work on electric guitar and piano along wonderful folky female vocals.

Mostly Autumn makes very melodic and accesible progrock, I love the tension between the folky part (bagpipes, flute, acoustic guitar) and bombastic prog with great Floydian guitar work. I am sure this live CD will please many progheads!

It is effectevly a storm that fell down on the mythical Astoria, in London on that evening of June, 4th, 2005.

MA, had just released their excellent studio album "Storms Over Still Waters". Much harder than their previous records and definitely their best studio album ever. MA will start their set with the same two opening numbers. "Out Of The Green Sky" is very good while "Broken Glass" is really too loud and noisy.

"Black Rain" is almost heavy, and longer than the studio version. It doesn't have its sensibility : just hardish. While "Carpe Diem" was one of the very few prog folk songs from "Still Waters" and is greatly rendered here. The title track, "Storms Over Still Water" features a great guitar solo during the second part.

"Answer The Question"as well as "Distant Train" (an instrumental track) come from their average album "The Passengers". On top of this, those numbers were amongst the weakiest ones from it.

Three great old songs (although one is reduced to its first part - "The Spirit Of The Autumn Past"). The mood again is very aggresive (almost Blackmorian guitar solo, Made In Japan like, really) during "Never The Rainbow" while "Evergreen" is somewhat quieter (except the great finale of course).

There is also an unreleased album track (to my knowledge) featured here, to raise the fan's interest (you should read, to sell more) : "Finlandia". Don't expect anything great form it : it is a pure Celtic instrumental. MA released several of this type throughout their career and none could be of interest to my ears.

On the front of live albums, MA has been extremely (too) prolific. Most of these live albums were featuring almost the same set list. At least, with this one, there is a little more variation. It is just a pity that MA plays so loud at times, it affects their music which is usually on a softer edge.

I usually considered that MA studio albums were too long; but for once, I would say that this live effort is too short. They might have extended it a bit and integrate two or three great additional songs. I would have rated it a little higher. Three stars for this pleasant moment.

Review Nº 770

Mostly Autumn, as its name indicates, is a name that conjures the images of an October sky, and this is precisely the month when I'm writing this review, with leaves on the ground, trees preparing to sleep trough the coming season change and shortened days. This is a season sometimes with shining moments, others with raining moments and we have also sometimes storms over us. In the fall we enter to a twilight realm in which a kind of a mystical unfolding is taking place. Alike, the music of Mostly Autumn evokes all these natural diverse qualities. They've been bringing their mysterious music to us for many years now, treading the boundaries of folk, rock, prog and Celtic music, conjuring the ghosts of a past that's still subtly hanging on to the present. We have walked in their meadows, slept by the rivers, climbed mountains, strolled through valleys and journeyed to the Middle Earth. They created a very own music world.

I have always felt a very special soft spot for Mostly Autumn but unfortunately I've never had the chance to see them live. However, if their live concerts are anything like these live releases, then I have to say that I've lost too much. Certainly, their studio albums have revealed a band of growing talent and vocal prowess, but listening their music live is a very different thing. Hearing their music live for the first time, and this was my case with this live album, it opened up to me an amazing vista of hidden treasures that I didn't recognize in their studio material. Their music sparks as if something wild has been set free and, in a certain way, it has something special when performed live. I wrote all these before about this live album, because "Storms Over London Town" was my real first contact with Mostly Autumn live.

"Storms Over London Town" is the eighth live album of Mostly Autumn and was released in 2006. It was recorded from a live concert made by Mostly Autumn at the London Astoria on Saturday 4th June 2005. This live concert was played to celebrate the launch of their sixth studio album "Storms Over Still Water", an album that was released in the same year.

The line up on "Storms Over London Town" is Heather Findlay (lead vocals and tambourine), Angela Gordon (vocals, flute, keyboards and tambourine), Bryan Josh (lead vocals and lead and rhythm guitars), Liam Davison (vocals and electric, acoustic and slide guitars), Iain Jennings (keyboards), Andy Smith (bass guitar) and Andrew Jennings (drums). "Storms Over London Town" had also the participation of Ben Matthews (lead and rhythm guitars), Troy Donockley (low whistles and Uilleann pipes) and Olivia Sparnenn and Rachel Jones (vocals and backing vocals).

"Storms Over London Town" has eleven tracks. The first track "Out Of The Green Sky" was released on "Storms Over Still Water", the second track "Broken Glass" was released on "Storms Over Still Water", the third track "Answer The Question" was released on "Passengers", the fourth track "Black Rain" was released on "Storms Over Still Water", the fifth track "Never The Rainbow" was released on "The Last Bright Light", the sixth track "Distant Train" was released on "Passengers", the seventh track "Evergreen" was released on "The Spirit Of Autumn Past", the eighth track "Carpe Diem" was released on "Storms Over Still Water", the ninth track "Finlandia" is, from what I know, an unreleased studio track by Mostly Autumn. The tenth track "Storms Over Still Water" was released on "Storms Over Still Water" and the eleventh track "The Spirit Of Autumn Past ? (Part 1)" was released on "The Spirit Of Autumn Past".

"Storms Over London Town" is a great live gig in an unforgettable night. The first two songs are played in a very fast tempo. The up-beat tempo of those two songs continues with "Answer The Question" and the other two next songs. Ben Matthews brings "Black Rain" to a higher level with his tasty guitar playing. And with the excellent vocals of Olivia Sparnenn and a nice guitar solo at the end of "Never The Rainbow" became really worthy to be listened again. With the great instrumental track "Distant Train" the live gig turns into the more symphonic side with great keyboard riff and the unmistakeable guitar solo of Bryan. "Carpe Diem" and "Storms Over Still Water", with the lovely voice of Rachel Jones, are another two classical highlights. The show ends with "The Spirit Of Autumn Past ? (Part 1)" one of their best pieces.

Conclusion: "Storms Over London Town" is an excellent live album of Mostly Autumn that represents perfectly well their excellent studio album "Storms Over Still Water". As I wrote above, this was the album that represents my first live experience with the group, beyond the view of their excellent track "Mother Nature" on the DVD "Progressive Rock Anthology", a DVD with a collection of ten progressive live concert clips from several progressive bands and artists, already reviewed by me on this site. That clip represents also my first contact with Mostly Autumn's music. Despite be far from being one of the best live albums from the band, I recommend "Storms Over London Town" to everyone who likes melodic and accessible progressive rock with a touch of Pink Floyd's style. So, and as a conclusion, this is a nice live album, especially for all their fans, because there aren't enough typical titles from the older albums from the band.

Prog is my Ferrari. Jem Godfrey (Frost*)