Beyond Infinity – Mother Earth
Review by: Guillermo Urdapilleta
Produced by: Lonero
Label: Syn-phonic
Scott Towne: drums
Earl Schrader: bass
Cynthia St.Clair: vocals
George Gregory: piano, synth, vocals
Chris Smith: guitars, violin, other strings
Warren Dale: synth, organ, winds, mallets
1. Politician
2. Seventeen
3. The Composer
4. Mother Earth
This is one of those CDs that arrive to your collection in an unexpected way. In the past Baja Prog Fest I was a client of Greg Walker's store and bought him a lot of CDs, so they had a bunch of copies of this album and gave them for free after a purchase. I didn't know about its existence, but somewhere I read these 4 songs were recorded in the late 70s but never released until 1996, a nice decision. This album, or EP, I don't really know how to call it contains 4 songs and a total time of 32 minutes.
Mother Earth begins with "Politician" which is a nice but not the best track of the album. I like the vocals and the piano overall, though drums and keys do also a nice job. Just before the fourth minute the music changes, keyboards become more symphonic and faster, adding a cool touch to the song. The vocals are nice and better when shared with different singers; lots of US bands like to use this vocal style. "Seventeen" is a bit longer than the previous, it has nice passages of tranquility like in the third minute, also they add some trumpets in brief moments, but aggregate a nice touch. Funeral drums sound later, creating now a tense and melancholic moment, what a combination; this passage is excellent by the way. Some other changes come next, overall, this is a great track.
"The Composer" show again some winds, creating a kind of avant-garde sound not far from Cheer-Accident. I like that combination of winds with piano and harmony vocals, it creates a cool communion between instruments. Nice track. The final song is "Mother Earth" and has a sweet sound that does communicate with nature, it is like an story of someone walking in a field, at least in the first minutes. Later the music changes and produces different nuances and sounds, even a Canterbury-esque mood. Nice track to finish this rescued-from-the-ashes album. My final grade will be 7 out of 10.