Album, Single and EP Reviews


 

 

  Somewhere Else by Garden


Somewhere Else cover art

Artist: Garden
Title: Somewhere Else
Catalogue Number: No catalogue number
Review Format: MP3
Release Year: 2013



I thought I taw a poody tat but I didn’t. Indeed I taw a poody progressive rock/metal band from poody Edinburgh and their name turned out to be Garden. Figuring that the poody had turned the world upside down again, I pondered their claim to be part of such an absurdly macho musical genre on the basis of their EP “Somewhere Else".

Despite therefore finding myself more confused than an Ewok at a rave, I wondered if the definition of progressive rock had been changed whilst I was in the toilet for Garden were about as weighty as Washington Irving. It is a fact that Garden do have a fondness for stretching songs out long enough to get your pizza delivered and also for those seventies classical chord progressions so beloved of prog-rockers yet they float in the musical sky like those other, more celebrated, inhabitants of the ethereal celtic cloud.

Now that we know what we are actually dealing with, Garden are an easy band to listen to and I can guarantee that they will not scare even the most timorous of maiden aunts. Samuel Bradley’s voice does seem terminally lost in the mix however and benefit from additional vocal support such as heard within the extended confines of “In The Garden”.
“Waiting For Fireworks”, on the other hand, represents – or at least I hope it represents – the true direction for this band with a compelling momentum driving the song through both celtic connections and a Rick Wakeman fixation whilst allowing, quite rightly, Dan Glover’s piano to execute a complex enchantment.

Suffering succotash, I have been indeed deceived once more.

The EP is available from Bandcamp.


www.facebook.com/gardenprog
Reviewer:
Review Date: September 22 2013