An album of which repeated listens bring satisfaction and enjoyment.
Dubbed as Ryo’s Beard, this solo release by Spock’s Beard keyboardist Ryo Okumoto is out now via Inside Out and is, indeed, the latest in a pretty long line of major artist releases on that label. It has a veritable smorgasbord of guest artists, including all his Beard bandmates, hence the handle attached to it.
The album is, I believe, his sixth, and the first for twenty years, which places him very firmly and squarely in the Peter Gabriel school of creative output. Indeed, looking at the background to this release, it was created only after a meeting with Michael Whiteman at a I Am The Manic Whale gig which impressed our man and got the pair of them together as collaborators on a project which is realised by the release of this album. The fact that Beard have not issued anything for four years now might also have had a bearing on the situation.
With a cast which includes Steve Hackett, Nick D’Virgilio, Michael Sadler, the Beard colleagues, and Mike Keneally amongst many others, you are certainly not going to get anything other than a well-played and produced piece of work. This is not, though, automatically translated into a fine album. I like a lot of the Beard output, but would not describe myself as an adoring fan, so I was looking for something unique and different from the day job. Did I get it?
The opener is a wee bit of an inside joke, Mirror Mirror being the title of the Star Trek episode (the one with the parallel universe which has grown into a storyline across all incarnations of the franchise) which featured said Spock with some fuzzy stuff around his chin. It opens in an explosion of sound before settling into a chugging guitar riff from Alan Morse and some solid rhythm section from D’Virgilio and Dave Meros. Talking of D’Virgilio, for the third time on record this year, he produces a hugely impressive vocal performance. The man has a classy set of pipes, of that there is no doubt. This is essentially a 2022 Beard track, and it is enjoyable fare making many references lyrically to the classic episode in question, and midway through Okumoto produces a wonderful key solo which is pacy without being extravagant. This is a strong start; it must be said.
There are four shorter tracks between the two epics which bookend the album. Michael Sadler provides vocals on Turning Point, with Whiteman pushing strong backing vocals. What is instantly noticeable about this smoky jazzy number is the exceptional drum and percussion contribution from Jonathan Mover, Okumoto’s ProgJect colleague. The Ryo keyboard interplays with Keneally’s guitar are especially creative and enjoyable and pull off that difficult trick of making you feel cheerful.
The Watchmaker (Time on his Side) is the shortest piece on the record weighing in at 6:25 minutes. This was my first introduction to the album as the single release, and the video is embedded below. The concept is a familiar one, that of a time traveller being able to go back and forth and right all sorts of historical wrongs. Whitehead gets his first opportunity to impress with lead vocals, Mover & Meros provide more very strong rhythm and Mover produced the video you see. The keyboard burst halfway through, and Lyle Workman’s guitar riff later, are fun, and this is a decent enough rocker without bringing anything truly memorable to the party. In parts, it strikes me that there is an overly complicated effort to fit the lyrics to the music.
Maximum Velocity is up next. There is a delicious acoustic intro before we get that classic Hackett sound, which is repeated just over six minutes in when we are treated to a swirling guitar riff quite beautifully supported by Okumoto on his noise making machine. This track is another space-themed number, with the hero Whiteman sings about (very well) being placed into his capsule before blasting off, and the track explodes when this happens into an impressive keyboard-led riff. By this time, you are getting a real sense of the positive way Okumoto and Whitehead work together.
Chrysalis is some seven and a half minutes long, is a ballad, and is simply quite starkly beautiful, a real standout for me not merely of this album, but of 2022. Okumoto’s lush piano at the intro leads us into a lovely Andy Suzuki flute. Randy McStine provides a fragile lead vocal, and his lyrics talking about at least being quiet in this chrysalis are obviously speaking to us about the enforced isolation of lockdown. Covid was an awful period, but, as has been the case throughout history, calamitous events provide an artistic spur in humanity, and this contribution deserves its place as one of rock’s finest contributions to the story of that hateful period. The video is below. Enjoy. Soar along with those vocals and music a minute out and realise the joy of being alive.
The album’s showcase piece revolves around a monster, that charming chap depicted on an impressively understated cover with a title track more than 22 minutes long, so a challenge here to not only keep the listener’s attention, but also to see whether the creators can produce a lengthy epic, but critically produce one which gives us changing moods, has a structure, and is memorable instead of being just long. It delivers on all of this.
The piano and mellotron intro are a fine start to proceedings before we get to the opening movement. Once again, the rhythm section is very noticeable underpinning not only Okumoto’s swirling keyboards, but in the more subdued passages. There is a very strong flute and bass-led passage with guitar some four minutes in which is obviously strongly influenced by classic early Genesis, but it pulls this off without being derivative, not an easy thing to do. What is amusing about the story itself is the fact that it is the good folk of Basingstoke, that somewhat archetypal leafy suburb town in Hampshire, who feel the wrath of the monster. Quite what the good and decent folk of this nice location have done to deserve this fate is, sadly, not altogether clear from the lyrics. I know that Whiteman is from Reading, so perhaps a poor reception at a historic gig? Anyhow, by the singing of AWAY, they manage to repel the nasty creature, so all ends well.
The track has more than a passing nod to classic prog rock in the vein of Genesis, Wakeman’s epic productions and music, and wears its love of such music on its sleeve (hear that mellotron nineteen minutes in!), and that is not such a bad thing. It is not a piece of music I will play on a weekly basis, but it is one I will put on regularly when the mood takes me, that mood wanting an enjoyable and fun rendition of timeless classic prog in a modern setting played extremely strongly by an ensemble who genuinely sound as if they are having a mighty fine time. By the way, the delicate vocal (lead and backing) and keyboard passage twelve minutes in is a delight, beautifully executed, and this leads us into a quite wonderful sax solo by Suzuki, whose work I really must explore much more.
When I listened to it the first couple of times, I was nonchalant about this album. Having listened a few more times, and seriously for the purposes of this review, I have grown to like it a lot. It is not merely well played - as I said above, that was always going to be the case, but it brings a smile to my face and that is really the most important test for any piece of music. It is, indeed, unique, and different and comes recommended.
Featuring a genuine classic ballad in Chrysalis and a title track packed full of proggy goodness