Dave Corwin - Many Hands

The music
Break The Mountain is the opener. The music is not easily described. I would certainly not describe it as prog. It is a type of singer songwriter music with influences from David Bowie and Peter Gabriel. The world influences are a bit bigger even on The Root, which also has some piano and sampled voices running through it. The sound departs from what people might call the ordinary singer songwriter music, mainly because of the combination of styles and instruments. Exotic is more like it.

Shaolin Master starts out slowly and percussively. Except for the percussive interlude, this is a straightforward song about the duality of the Shaolin master, at least in the eye of the uninitiated.

Kicking The Rain is a reggae inspired track, in a way funnier than I expect it has to be in view of the lyrics, which seem to be about somebody having overdosed on heroin. Some Spanish influences as well here in the guitar work.

With The Seed we come to the first instrumental, a short one. Not surprisingly, it is the percussion that is in control, with some weird keyboard meanderings riding along.

So Sad (Great Movie) is an upbeat track with a nice bridge in which the keyboards dance. For the remainder, the song is a bit too ordinary, but the end does compensate.

Cycle Of Night is a love ballad, a sad one, where piano and percussion figure next to the dominating vocals. On the other hand, Can't Kill The Dream opens with fast acoustic strumming.

The Soil is short didgeridoo type instrumental, very world like, but with a strong beat. Not Your Place opens with the electronic snore and bleepy keys. The song combines a hard rock riff with a fast country music like chorus. Strange, and I don't think I like it. The guitar solo sounds a bit far away, making it sounds seventies like.

Didgeridoo opens Fall, dark and low. Soft percussion, spacious guitar, whispered vocals, the song stays rather sparse. During the chorus the vocals are doubled and the percussion is louder. The intermezzo starts off nicely with clear keyboards, but it is not for long.

Ride The Tide opens with fast paced drums. A Bowie influence is felt here, notwithstanding the overall country feel. The country sound a bit far away, a bit muffled. Now Corwin's voice is quite sharp, so that compensates, but it seems to me that productionally things could improve here. The country influence becomes even stronger later on.

The Stone is more a psychedelic affair, again strongly percussive and for some reason it reminds me of solo Roger Waters.

The final one is Pass The Years, which has a mellow rock ballad opening. The vocals are lower here, I like them better that way, and features some more melodic material than average. Nice.

Although the front cover does correspond to the album title, I do not think it is nice to look at.

Conclusion
The music on this album is not prog as we know it. Corwin writes 'ordinary' songs, with sensible lyrics, the arrangements and dressing of which can be called distinctive. Strong percussive input, strong vocals (a bit Bowie like), and a tendency to crossover to styles like reggae and country make this an interesting release.

© Jurriaan Hage


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