FIELD OF VISION

Somewhere in the nineties there were several samplers of different labels. Amongst those was the famous proglabel Cyclops. I bought some of those samplers and got aware of Credo. What I didn't know: they were so clever to put their by far best song of the album on the sampler (A Kindness ?). This was a song with questionable vocals but very good guitarwork. So I saw the album in the store later on and thought: well let's buy it. But this appeared a mistake. The rest of the album was a lot less. The second part of the album was slightly better than the first but in all it was quite poor. And then I especially mean the vocals, it's really out of tune quite often and that makes an amateurish impression. I'm afraid Credo is in all a bit amateurish, it's shown in their discography. Just two albums doesn't prove a shining carreer. So, I'm sorry I can't recommend this. I don't think one can advice to buy an album because of just one song. 2 stars because of that.

Instead of a real review I have to post the following thoughts.

I have no problem with bands trying to capture the spirit of the classic prog giants of the 70's and use it for songs and arrangements with a simpler format,but always maintaining this progressive rock feeling.This is the case of bands like PALLAS or PENDRAGON back in early 80's...but I do have the problem with bands borrowing the sound of the 80's neo progressive rock movement and make it even more straightforward.This is not progressive rock...and this is the case here with CREDO.Additionally these straightforward rock music is followed by poor songwriting and completely forgettable tunes...

Not recommended at all.This is not only very far from progressive rock,but it is badly played rock music with no emotion and soul.Avoid.

I looked for this album for a long time. Not that I was expecting much from it. According to band members, it was never intended to be released on CD and it was supposed to be only a cassette recording to sell at their pub gigs!! (remember, it was 1994) I bet a reviewer here who bashed Field Of Vision unmercifully didn´t know that. Anyway, I had all this upfront knowledge when I got the CD and I was ready to meet a badly recorded, done by a yet-not-mature band. But, in some ways, I was surprised by the good quality of it.

Ok, originality was something far from being achieved here. Credo was still one of several new bands trying to emulate their recently deceased heroes of Marillion (well, at least that´s the way I thought Marillion was after Fish has left them): for exemple, the beginning of the second track, Good Boy, sounded strikingly familiar, too much like a mix of Market Square Heroes and Garden Party riffing, although the song itself is quite good. And the songwriting of this CD is probably the one aspect that surprised me the most, with songs being very well cut and performed. It is clear that the band had a lot to learn yet, but the all basic elements were there already. Unlike other reviews here, I think the tunes are very promising, with at least a couple of gems: Sweet Scarlet Whisper and A Kindness. Both are excellent songs, very well arranged and passionate delivered.

The performances and the overall sound are superior than I had expected considering the band´s meager resources at the time. Singer Mark Colton has a nice voice that works very well with the style while bassist Jim Murdoch was already a fine player. Guitarrist Tim Burrel also showed great skill, even if he was still suffering a kind of "Steve Rothery syndrome" on several cuts. Actually the only department that the band was lacking a better player was at the keyboards. Not that Mik Stovold was bad, no, but it is clear the band needed a more accomplished and agressive player for this function (eventually they would, when the excellent Mike Varty arrived a little later). The production and mixing are adequate for the time.

Conclusion: while not nearly as good as their latter work, Field Of Vision clearly portrays a promising band in the right way. Although few songs here are really outstanding, none is crap. I´m glad Credo went on to release such excellent records as Rhetoric and Against Reason. This one may be seen as a blueprint of those. The real rating should be 2.5 but I decided to round up to 3 to compensate the unfairness of some of the earlier reviews.

A kind of beginning

Field Of Vision, released in 1994, was Credo's first release. As pointed out in previous reviews, Credo is a British band that has a very long pre-history. Lead guitarist Tim Birrell and bass player Jim Murdoch have been playing together since as far back as the early 70's! It wasn't, however, until the early 90's that they adopted the name of Credo. The constant core of the band (from this time onwards) seems to be Birrell, Murdoch and singer Marc Colton. On the present album they are filled out by drummer Paul Clarke and keyboarder Mik Stovold. There are three Credo studio albums to date and there seems to be widespread agreement on the improvements of each over the previous one. This first attempt shows some promise but it is clearly an immature effort. The production is weak and the band had yet to find their own identity and style. While some of the songs are good for sure, the end result is rather amateurish.

My first acquaintance with some of these songs was on the recent live DVD This Is What We Do on which several songs from this album are featured. On the DVD, several of these songs were performed as part of a medley, which was probably the wisest thing to do as they have some good parts, but do not stand up all that well as stand-alone pieces. If you want to get to know Credo, the latest studio album Against Reason and the live DVD This Is What We Do is all you need. You have to have a very special interest (to know the band members personally, maybe) in order to find this debut album essential.

Strictly for fans and collectors this one

Credo's debut album finds a band who, when they recorded it back in 1994, were simply not ready for showtime. True, the low-budget production values aren't exactly their fault, but to be frank the material on the album wouldn't particularly benefit from fancier engineering. The compositions are limp and simplistic, and based on the poppiest and least distinctive and appealing cliches of late 1980s and early 1990s neo-prog; furthermore, the band simply haven't developed their own distinctive sonic identity yet. On the whole, the album sounds like the guys trying out a bunch of unrelated ideas to see how they like them - in other words, more like a rehearsal or a demo tape than a fully-realised album.