Jim Kirkwood Morning Star Part 1 Play:    Mid-Fi   Hi-Fi (Excerpt from track 'Paradise Lost') Please go to the Store to buy this item.

CDR / 4 tracks / 72.46 mins

We start with the intriguingly titled ‘The Little Crooked House of Reality’. Playful note droplets (with a slightly eerie edge) are juxtapositioned by melancholy strings. A superb sequence bursts forward shaking us back to reality. An infectious rhythm compliments the sequence perfectly. It’s the sort of music that is best listened to without distractions, just sit back and let it all wash over you. The drums depart and the strings return once more for a moody finish. A subtle shimmering lead continues our journey ‘By the Dawn’s Early Light’. Initially this is quite a laid back number but just before the half way mark a bass sequence surges forward. Electronic twitters get ‘Escaping the Holograph’ underway. Silken notes hover over the top. Vocal samples, as if on the edge of a dream, tell us that ‘it is all an illusion’. It’s all rather eerie but also beautiful- in a spaced out sort of way! A tinkling sequence gives a little structure as we progress on our hallucinogenic ‘trip’. Another sequence, even faster than the first, gives us a bit of a shake and we are once more questing forward into the unknown. A very deep bass pulse sounds like some vast giant pacing across the Earth. Mellotron and flutey synth reply as if in a challenge and things become increasingly intense. Classic Kirkwood! We finish with the mammoth, over half an hour, ‘Paradise Lost’. Initially it’s all rather spooky. Rumbles can be heard, like feeling the echoes of some distant explosion. The mood softens a little with the introduction of ethereal pads, but those distant explosions can still be heard- indeed if anything they are getting closer. A weeping cello takes us back to the depths of despair. Beautiful but also rather poignant stuff. A wonderful huge organ lead accompanied by a militaristic rhythm herald a complete change. A sequence adds even more energy and a typical scything Kirkwood lead line flashes above it all like a laser cannon. Power gushes from the speakers as Jim whips up intense excitement. By the half way mark the ‘storm’ has blown itself out and a lonesome flute rises above the devastation. Strings float like wisps of smoke. A soft wind blows but all is far from well, as more explosions can be heard. The eye of the storm has now passed and the forces of evil once more surge forward as the most devastating sequences on the whole album make a blistering return, layer after layer of them, phantoms whooshing over the top. A beautiful mournful cello solo finishes things off. DL

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