review

Review Angels?

bm forest field angels

And again a more favorable review from my home country. Seems the reviewers are finally warming up a bit to the Forest Field sound wink

 

Here some quotes:

* I have to credit Peter for focussing on the rock element, the compositions have an extra crunch, mainly because of the overly present guitar solos and melodies that Angels? holds.

* Listen to his guitar solos on the instrumental In Excelsis and you hear he really has the skills and knowhow to pull off some fine guitar work.

* It Looks Like Rain is a fine song with fine solos and The Zoo is another one I do like very much.

Read it in full here

Thanks you Pedro!

 

rock company buy it

Stunning Review on One World Music

one world music

Steve Sheppard from One World Music Radio has once again written an extensive review, and this time it is about the new album Angels?

Some quotes :

* So let’s start on another journey with Peter Cox and crew and the first piece is the opener called Broken Wings. This one is a classic Cox creation; you will find a tempo change at just over half way in and some stunning guitar work soon after, this is a really creative start to open up the album with, almost cinematic at times.

* Well this one would go down well in the U.K and it is called It looks like Rain. Once more the beginning is deceptive and a slow sullen mood can be found here, Vincent’s voice is its usual perfection and his ability to illustrate with his vocals is world class. The harmonies on this piece are simply delightful and the

arrangement of the composition and its structure with subtle tempo changes makes this one sublime and extremely listenable piece indeed. This track also contains some very delicious Floyd styled guitar within it as well.

* Angel with a Dirty Face is in my opinion a clever and very carefully constructed composition that you can’t help but enjoy. Listen in at just over two minutes for some incredible elevation in energy. One has to admire the guitar of Cox on this track; the China White man has really pulled the stops out on this one, I truly believe that this should be released as a single; it has a superb melody and an extremely memorable chorus and I loved it.

* The penultimate piece is called In Excelsis. The start is has a careful progression about it, then as the song moves through its narrative we are treated with a multitude of extremely well performed instrumentation. We nearly have a little Keith Emmerson styled hoedown on keyboards, but the driving guitar of Cox as always, takes the centre stage and once more creates an absolutely stunning composition.

* I completely recommend this album to you all and its unique properties and stylish performance, its sublime production and arrangements had made this one of my favourite albums listened to so far this year. So don’t hesitate, make Angels part of your musical life right now, you won’t regret it.

To read it in full click here.

Thank you so much Steve for these wonderful words!

 

rock company buy it

Morpheus reviews Earthshine 2

morpheus earthshine reviewPaul from Morpheus has written some very nice words about the Somewhere Around CD:

Somewhere Around is a rather eclectic, highly melodic album of bright electronic music that draws upon influences ranging from Berlin School, 80’s synth pop, modern space music, lounge and new age positivity. Built primarily around synthetic keyboard sounds and mellotron, Peter Cox also incorporates some deft electric and acoustic guitar work; breathy pan flutes; expressive sax; echoing chimes and a range of sparkling effects into his music. The album takes the listener on an overarching homeward-bound journey: the opening spacey, beatless tracks featuring layered electronica and attractive, meandering structures; rhythmic sequences and emotional intensity increasing as we come down to earth; percussive patterns and beats build as we move toward the familiarity of civilisation. Most tracks are warm, inviting and very much easy-listening: piano and synthetic leads comfortably holding the attention, electronic peripherals providing interesting backdrops.

To see what else he had to say, or for some of my comments, please visit his page here.

Rock Society review for Forest Field

rock society

UK magazine has done a very nice review of the latest effort by Forest Field. Thanks!
It reads:

This is Forest Field’s second album, their name taken from the region in (I think) the Netherlands where Peter Cox, the band leader lives. It consists of eleven tracks, ranging from 3 to 7 minutes, where all the odd numbered tracks are instrumental and the even number with vocals.
The album is book ended by Onwards at the beginning and And Upwards at the end. This is a simple instrumental piece played on both tracks that benefits from the greater production on the latter.
I must confess to finding it hard to exactly place just what style this music is. The record company describes the instrumental pieces as ambient and proggy. and I guess that is reasonable accurate, and I found all the instrumentals to be pleasant without being much more than that, but they do provide light and shade between the vocal tracks.

Certainly the vocalist is very good with a nice voice and the quality of the songs is excellent, with some lovely catchy themes, the trouble is I am not sure they are really prog. In fact A Miracle I could just visualize being sung by Take That. That is not meant in  a bad way, the song is excellent and with the money and production available to bands like Take That, I could easily see this being a hit, and the same could be said about all other vocal tracks all of which have strong melodies.

This however seems to sit between both stools and is a bit too rocky for pop music lovers but not inventive enough for prog fans. There is clearly a lot of talent here , but if they want to appeal to prog fans then maybe they should think about a concept next time or fleshing out the songs and being a bit more inventive. Overall I quite liked it and it would certainly be good to play in the car or home when others of a less proggy nature are listening. SM

Forest Field review Io Pages

forest field io pagesDutch magazine Io Pages published a nice review of our Onwards and Upwards album.

Some excerpts:

“Forest Field brings a tranquil form of prog with a lot of room for acoustic guitar and piano”

“What I like is the guitar playing by Cox. Regularly scharp solos can be heard, for instance in Car Park Pleasures and Stronger”

“Hope is a beautiful song with Mellotron strings and Sue Straw on flutes”.

If you can read Dutch, you can read the article:

Forest Field is een project van de Nederlandse multi-instrumentalist Peter Cox (gitaar, bas, toetsen, drums), gitarist bij Chinawhite. Andere musici zijn zanger Phil Vincent (Legion, Tragik) en zangeres-fluitiste Sue Straw, beiden Amerikanen. Onwards And Upwards is het 2e album na Pioneers Of The Future (zie iO117). De mix werd verzorgd door de bij prog liefhebbers bekende Billy Sherwood. Forest Field maakt een rustige vorm van prog met veel ruimte voor de akoustische gitaar en de piano. Ambient progressive rock noemt men het zelf en daarin kan ik me wel vinden. In 6 van de 11 nummers wordt gezongen, maar Phil Vincent heeft een wat hoge stem die me helaas niet zo kan bekoren.

Wat me wel bevalt is het bekwame gitaarspel van Cox. Hij laat met enige regelmaat scherpe solo’s horen, bijvoorbeeld in Car Park Pleasures en Stronger. De instrumentale nummers vind ik dus sterker dan de gezongen tracks, want die ontberen wat spanning. Hope is echter wel een fraai nummer met Mellotron strings en een bijdrage van Straw op fluit. Ook het stuwende Believe met een prettig synthesizer loopje is aardig. Soms hoor ik wat passages die ook als film muziek dienst zouden kunnen doen, zoals And Upwards, met opnieuw strijkers uit de Mellotron. Mensen die van ‘lichte’ prog houden, zouden de muziek van Forest Field eens kunnen proberen. Meer informatie kun je vinden op de website van de band.

Great reception for new Earthshine: ACTION

oneworldmusic earthshineOur friends at One World Music UK have done another excellent job reviewing the new Earthshine album Somewhere Around. You can read it on their website or on the official Earthshine site.

Such good words call for action, that is why we will add a FREE band shirt to every order this week here in our little webshop. As long as stock permits though!

So go ahead and be the first amongst your friends 🙂

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