Heart Head & Soul Vintage Dreams Play Sample:   56K Dialup   Broadband   Download Sample:   500K   1.5Mb (Excerpt from track(s) 'I Can See the New World')

'Vintage Dreams' is the debut release from Heart Head & Soul. No they're not some aptly named European trio, it is in fact the chosen working name of Mr.Thomas Zimmer. He is a dexterous keyboard player with great technique and flawless articulate arrangement skills. He has produced an album of some considerable variety, taking the something for everyone approach to the music on offer here, moving seamlessly from one style to another with the greatest of ease. As you're all going to be unfamiliar with Zimmer's work l'll be doing a fair bit of names dropping throughout the review to put you all in the picture as to what you can expect from this guy as accurately as is humanly possible. It's generally a very lively album with a lot of ground to be covered stepping through a wide range of musical styles with more than just a knod to the past featuring everything from space to prog rock and all else in between.

The set commences with, 'Goodbye Earth',(4.21) and instantly we're transported back to the early 90's with the exact feel established by our old hero Michael Shipway with his 'Spirit of Adventure' album. I'm sure the similarities are unintentional, but wow, what a way to start. Things are sounding most promising. 'Reach the Orbit',(6.19) sounds as if Thomas real has a plan for this piece, he knows exactly what he wants to achieve over the next six minutes, not wasting a single moment on aimless padding. The track springs to life at the two minute mark, the rhythm section exploding into a frenzy of synth lead and percussion, all very reminiscent of the music of Intelligentsia and just as intense throughout!!! I'm thinking of the Jon and Vangelis track,' State of Independence' as track three, 'The end of the Galaxy',(4.12) rolls into town. It's a lightweight electro poppy type of track, with the lead/solo sounds putting us firmly into Intelligentsia mode once more.

Meanwhile,'20,000 lightyears away',(4.20) displays a wickedly synced synth lead against an up-tempo backdrop of diverse percussives and synth sequencing. Full of interludes, the piece never really gets into full flight, delayed patterns dance around adding depth to the track. The electronic drums and percussion used leaving this one feeling all abit paper thin though.

In the states Den Harrow used to produce tracks just like,'Not far Away',(3.45) some twenty years ago now!!! The air is filled with simple but effective arpeggiations galore. The drums again sound alittle one dimensional, but serve their purpose well enough. When all is said and done, not a bad little track at all!!! 'I can see the new World', (5.05) arrives at the halfway point of the album, and we've just gone retro!!! Much improved drums arrive with a nice smooth back beat. The arpeggiators helping to push the track along prior to the rhythm section stepping things up to a point where you could honestly say you were listening to a mid tempo T-Bass UK track; now that cant be bad. The title track makes its presence known at just over four minute's duration, and again we're back under that rather wonderful Michael Shipway sound-alike spell again.

'Supernova', (7.09) has a distinctly Jarresque chord progression running throughout, but doesn't seem to achieve the greatness its build up requires of it, the track ending without having much to say. Paradoxically 'Stardust', (5.31) does just the opposite regaining some real musical purpose as a razor sharp lead shows us that Mr. Zimmer really is a dab hand at tickling the old ivories!!! Once again a more rock inspired influence shapes the piece, and very good it is too.

'Colours of the new Sun', (5.06) brings the set to a close, albeit a disappointing one as this last track sounds very formulaic and soulless, a sort of cool jazz muzak that tries and tries to sound stylish and slick but never in a month of Sundays ever could be.

The album is brilliantly played and produced by Mr. Zimmer, but we have a problem that has been niggling me throughout the entire duration of the album, it's a small but important factor - the name under which Mr. Zimmer records !!! Heart Head & Soul is a truly terrible name, but don't be put off by this as the music on the album is solid enough. This is an album that l would liken to the solo work of Geoff Downes, its all text book playing technique and faultless in its execution.

The ten set pieces presented here don't leave much room for manoeuvre, everything played is very precise and there for a reason. Sometimes its nice to have alittle window dressing which allows an album to breathe as it should by injecting some ambience and atmospherics here and there, whilst at the same time giving the music more edge.