Radiant Moon hail from Rochester in New York State, and in January, released their debut album, Now’s the Time. They are signed to DEKO Entertainment (distributed by ADA Music/Warner Music Group), and if you go along to their website, you can purchase physical content. It is also available on all major streaming platforms.
The band was formed in 2021 when veteran musicians/songwriters Brian Facklam (keyboards, vocals) and Dave Shahin (guitar, bass, keyboards, vocals) joined forces with Jimmy Grillo (drums) and Nick Lieto (vocals).
The album has garnered some positive reviews, and I think it is fair to say that there is a strong sense of classic progressive rock in this. There are ten tracks to unpick. Let’s get to it.
We open with the longest on the album, Waking Dream, which at just short of eight minutes will inform readers that there are no epic length tracks here. There is a nice urgency to this, and certainly aficionados of bass guitar will appreciate the rumbling underbelly created and later some of the fine melodies coming from Shahin’s fretwork. There is an interesting change of perspective two minutes in, with a fine keyboard lead and some nice guitar work taking the track into dreamier, if you will pardon the pun, progressive territory, and some of the pastoral moods created remind one of classic 70’s work from the likes of Genesis, Camel, and Renaissance, and it sounds wonderful. A solid start to proceedings.
This is followed by Castaway. I like this track, a rich sound produced by the guitars, solid rhythm section, soaring keys a la Banks with a light feel reminding one of the transition from “pure prog” Genesis to the sound of the shorter form in Wind & Wuthering and thereafter. A track which back in the day would have attracted some decent airplay on the FM Radio channels.
We Are One opens with some interesting percussion and effects, rather otherworldly before morphing into a psych jazz-infused piece, sax interplay with the band in a nice set of jams, completely unlike anything which preceded it. The vocals when they arrive are urgent, the bass melodies are staggering, and the guitar solo takes one away. It is embedded below.
It segues into Keep the Faith, and I suppose that the sentiments of both these tracks have not been needed as much as they are now for many years. I think we have kind of gotten complacent, and that is being shaken. It is also embedded below for you. At times, vocally, you could be listening to Chris Squire, and, indeed, this is reinforced by some of the quality bass playing. It is a pleasant track all round, with a playful psych quality to it, the ghostly guitar prominent as it progresses.
One Life follows, and that is, indeed, all we have. Make the most of it. There is some mournful orchestration on this, the vocals reflecting the core theme, sharing our only time on earth together. A thoughtful piece of music, deliberately understated, the piano melody very good as it leads the denouement.
The title track follows, and opens with more of the piano, with a guitar taking the lead alongside more interesting percussion and orchestration. The song exhorts us to take a long, hard look at ourselves, with an interesting urgency without any unnecessary noise. It is very much a song for Trumpian times, and I like the move again into jazz rock territory with the brass instrumentation over the sounds of the street. It is embedded below for you to enjoy, a very good piece of music.
Leave Yourself Alone opens with fine bass and drum/percussion, playful noises, and it is another example of how this band are best when they immerse themselves into that jazz rock arena, some really nice interplay, a fine guitar riff, a dirty organ, hooting sax, altogether sumptuous and my favourite here.
Nirvana, that transcendent state where we are finally released from the cycle of life & death, and the piano which opens the track is a joyful set of notes, the synths adding to it, upbeat. I must say, though, that as it develops it does bring a distinct similarity to the tone, sound, and feel of Tull’s Living in the Past.
Take My Hand is the penultimate track on the album. It takes us into later Beatles psych influenced territory, dreamy, the sax producing some pleasant notes above this, something which fans of Helliwell will certainly appreciate.
We close with Never Again, which is a slab of Americana, overlaid by orchestration and vocal harmonies emphasising that the protagonists will never go back. The guitar solo is very good on this.
What to say about Radiant Moon and this album? Well, I think it is fair to say that it doesn’t break any new ground in our music world, but not every album has to. I have enjoyed listening to it, added to my iTunes library, and it will be interesting to see how they develop, because they can certainly play. I have no hesitation whatsoever recommending it to my readers.