Circle of Crows - Everything Comes After Zero

Circle of Crows

Everything Comes after Zero

SaN Ltd

It's been difficult to put pen to paper for this debut from Cornish trio Circle of Crows.  Each time I play its six tracks I drop my pen and wield my air guitar instead.  It also has the charisma that will make them a household name.  How a trio can deliver such a convincing and confident sound on their first recording is remarkable.  It took Sir Paul McCartney, four albums after the split of The Beatles to hit his stride again with Band on The Run.

Everything Comes After Zero has imagination, riffs and solos, and a confident vitality of bands like Audioslave, The Datsuns, The Libertines and The Darkness.  Kyle Gormley sings of themes that resonate across the generations.  "Life goes on, Try saying that when you've lost as much as me" he opens on How to Wait For Nothing.   "I've forgotten how to dream because I've spent so long in the dark" he starts on the slower Into The Sun are anthems that will gather and hold fans like a magnet passed over iron filings.

NE

Tim Hunter - Blue Sky Moments

Tim Hunter

Blue Sky Moments

Northern Soundscape

Behemoths of Rock won't feel threatened by this softly lilting instrumental album inspired by the North Yorkshire coastline from composer Tim Hunter.  Yet on the hottest night in the UK for years, I was grateful to be taken from sweltering bedroom to the cooler space of North Yorkshire by the expressive restrained guitars and synth work, with a rhythm similar to that of Toto's Africa.  

It's an album that could accompany the concept of slow-eating and large family gatherings,  as it lulls and  charms any listener.  Tim's clean guitar playing has echoes of the fluidity of Mark Knopfler especially on my favourite track Fossil Fantasy. 

I relaxed to the pleasant atmosphere provided by Blue Sky Moments, found plenty to admire in his melodies and played it back-to-back the very next day whilst stuck in sticky Friday afternoon traffic jams. 

NE