This Old Man: All in Pieces

Look “no-man” up in Wikipedia and it will tell you that the band is an art pop duo, formed more than 30 years ago, who have so far produced 6 albums. At the time of their last full album release, 2008’s Schoolyard Ghosts, the careers of Messrs Wilson and Bowness were in completely different places: Wilson was embarking on his post Porcupine Tree solo career while Bowness had released a solo album a few years previously,and had been a member of a variety of side projects. In 2019, Steven is a bona fide, figure-head of the modern prog scene and Tim is a critically acclaimed solo artist with 3 recent albums to his name…

In 1978, disco was king. For those who were not born or are not old enough to recall the cultural juggernaut that was disco in the last three years of the 1970s, consider this: Rock performers such as Rod Stewart and the Rolling Stones made disco songs in 1978, such was the pressure to be a part of this musical trend. Earth, Wind & Fire was likely in the studio working on an album that would include one of the era's best disco anthems. The genre was at its absolute apex, and the great fall that was about a year away was nowhere in sight.
It was at this time that Womack released Pieces, now being reissued by Purpose Vaults. And while it would be incorrect to call Pieces a disco album, Womack clearly heard the songs played on the radio, Nor can it be said that Womack was solely motivated by commercial concerns. LIke all great artists, Womack is a curious soul who is more than willing to step outside of perceived musical boxes.

Honus Honus (aka Ryan Kattner) has devoted his career to exploring the uncertainty between life’s extremes: beauty and ugliness, order and chaos. The songs on Dream Hunting in the Valley of the In-Between, Man Man’s first album in over six years and his Sub Pop debut, are as intimate, soulful, and timeless as they are audaciously inventive and daring.

Conservative in his musical style as in his politics – rightly or wrongly the whiff of Fascism hangs over his name – Ottorino Respighi is remembered today almost exclusively for the blazing triptych of Roman tone poems. He also, however, produced a corpus of chamber, keyboard and vocal works, not to mention operas and orchestral pieces, many of which are crying out to be rediscovered. Slowly they are finding their way into concert programmes and on to record, and this disc from the Ambache should bring three of them a well-deserved wider currency. The superb Piano Quintet in F minor occasionally recalls Franck (who wrote one in the same key), but its piano-dominated lyrical effusion is wholly individual. The substantial ten-minute first movement is inadequately balanced by a two-minute Andantino and four-minute scherzo-like Vivacissimo, however, and it is possible that a finale has somehow become detached.