STRAIGHT ON TILL MORNING

British keyboardist,born in Emsworth, Hampshire in 1955.He started his career next to Robert John Godfrey with The Enid,which he left in 1976 to join the progresive rock band Autumn.By 1978 Autumn had disbandeed and the future found Nick Magnus next to Steve Hackett,with whom he spent eleven years both on studio and on stage.During the 80's he would also work as a session keyboardist for various artists,among them Renaissance,Peter Bardens of Camel and Chris Rea.Since 1990 Nick Magnus followed a personal career and in 1993 he released his debut album ''Straight On Till Morning'' on Voiceprint.

Nick plays and arranges all instruments on this album,except on a couple of tracks,where he is helped by guitarist Jay Stapley of Roger Waters and Mike Oldfield fame.The instrumental album has a dreamy and optimistic view all the way with melodic solos on guitars and ethereal keyboards and piano,often with an evident symphonic tendency.However the overall sound is not that adventurous.It has a strong commercial vibe met also both in Hackett's and Oldfield's later works with Magnus only trying to produce pleasant,cheesy and happy pieces of orchestrated music despite his good skills,while part of his keyboard work sounds very cheap.Additionally the sampled flutes,percussion and wind instruments sounds very dull as well.The lack of additional instruments is a matter of discussion too.On the other hand most of them are well-arranged,the production is bright and clear and some of them contain hints of good Symphonic Rock music with a New Age atmosphere.And the guitars,where present,are fine, producing some good melodies.

''Straight On Till Morning'' is a classic example of an albumcontaining all the light mistakes of a debut as well as a one-man project.One-dimensional style with plenty of ups and downs,the album has good chances to be likeable only as background music.Not exactly recommended,except you search for some good and pleasant background music.

Humble beginnings

Straight On Till Morning was the first solo album by Nick Magnus, best known for being the keyboard player in Steve Hackett's band. Here he went at it alone for the first time and the results are far from impressive. There is nothing here pointing towards later and much, much better albums like Children Of Another God (2010), Hexameron (2004), and Inhaling Green (1999), and neither does anything here remind of Magnus' important contributions to Hackett's albums in the late 70's and early 80's. This album is more towards the easy-listening category and it too often reminds me of what you would hear from one of those men doing instrumental MIDI covers of familiar Pop songs in a bar! That description is admittedly a bit unfair, but it comes too close for comfort.

Still, this is not a bad album of its kind, but merely an album of a bad kind. It does have some nicer moments, and it is pleasant enough as background music, or perhaps it would have worked as film or television music. But there is just nothing challenging whatsoever here and it leaves no lasting impressions. You neither need nor are likely to want to hear this more than once.

This is where it began for Nick Magnus, but it is not where you should begin with Nick Magnus. I would recommend investigating his solo discography in reverse chronological order (beginning with the very good Children Of Another God), and only the true fan and collector need go back as far as Straight On Till Morning.