...SIŁA I PIĘKNO MUZYKI TKWIĄ W JEJ RÓŻNORODNOŚCI.



..::OPIS::..

Epicka mieszanka progresywnego rocka, fusion, i nawet metalu przesuwająca granice muzycznej i dźwiękowej doskonałości.
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British keyboardist, producer, and composer Benjamin Croft has been writing and arranging music when he was young. As a toddler, he would go and visit his next-door neighbor who was a professional trumpeter and pianist whilst sitting in the corner in the music room and watching him perform his heart out. That’s where the lightbulb turned on inside his head.

By the age of 7, he started to follow in his neighbor’s footsteps. But it wasn’t until in his teens he discovered the worlds of the progressive rock genre after hearing Keith Emerson, and Rick Wakeman’s incredible keyboard work on Yes’ magnum opus Close to the Edge. Soon, he won a scholarship for Leeds College of Music when he was 19 after practicing for four years studying, piano, trumpet, and composition.

That’s takes a lot of strength and honor for what Croft had to endure. After completing his task, he went around the world and toured with bands and artists such as The Go-Go’s Belinda Carlisle, soprano singer Leslie Garrett, The Temptations, and of course The Platters.

Following his performance by playing country, musical theaters, jazz, and rock while playing at clubs such as Ronnie Scott’s and the Vortex, played in the West End musical Straight from the Heart, and did TV shows such as The Voice and Britain’s Got Talent. But his love of the progressive rock genre is still in his heart. And he hasn’t forgotten that.

His new album We Are Here to Help, a follow-up to his second release Far and Distant Things, and released on his own label Galactic Receiver, is the album that is very much an imaginative movie inside your head. It’s a mixture of art, jazz, rock, album-orientated rock, metal, it’s all there.

And to be allowed to have vocalists and musicians such as Simon Phillips, Jeff Scott Soto, Stu Hamm, Frank Gambale, Billy Sheehan, Lynsey Ward, and Marco Minneman, that’s a combination right there. Each of the centrepieces behind Croft’s chef-d’oeuvre, are illustrated pictures coming to life in all of its glory.

The unexpected changes on ‘You Made Me Miss’ which features this laid-back bossa-nova jazz intake from the realms of Croft’s Monk-like approach, followed by Phillips’ train chugging beat, Stern’s nod to the Grand Wazoo, and Hamm following Mike in hot pursuit, would’ve made Zappa, The Mahavishnu Orchestra, Kansas, and Gentle Giant appreciate the work that they’ve accomplished.

When I think of the title-track, I think of the A.O.R movement coming across the horizon. Soto shows his true identity by revealing the dangers that are about to explore with more of the train-chugging approach Minnemann does, as it segues between the elements between Def Leppard’s Pyromania, Queen, Boston, and the elements of Styx rolled into one.

But it’s Lynsey Ward’s angelic vocals that floats down to earth to give Croft the proper push that he needs to brings this album to life. From the travelling sense of loss with acoustic boundaries on ‘Caught in the Flypaper’ with its high-energetic riffs, sing-along chorus, nods to Gershwin’s ‘Rhapsody in Blue’ for a brief moment, and the unexpected twists paying tribute to Italian prog rock and the NWOBHM movement sounds of Premiata Forneria Marconi and Iron Maiden, makes it very worthwhile.

Exploring Birdsong vocalist has the sound. She resembles the textures of Within Temptation’s Sharon Den Adel, Magenta’s Christina Booth, iamthemorning’s Marjana Semkina, and Edenbridge’s Sabine Edelsbacher. Whenever you hear her voice on that and the ascending roar on ‘Wrestling with Plato’, you almost couldn’t let them go. Because it is beautiful, simply beautiful on what she has done behind those two songs.

But then, Soto returns to the plate once more by making another home run to bring Croft and his fellow teammates to win the world series with ‘She Flies Softly On’. An Edgar Allen Poe-like theatrical turned tragic mini opera where Soto’s character has a few hours to live, reflecting the loss of his loved one and writing down the last rite, knowing that the love of his life, is waiting for him up in heaven.

No turning back on this bad boy, Benjamin is very much the alternate film director that we need in our lifetime. We need something surprising, something magnetic, and something far more epic that we need from a break of all of the superhero movies in our daily lives. And this album is a well-delivered release that’ll be in your collection, for the rest of time.

Zachary Nathanson



..::TRACK-LIST::..

..::OBSADA::..

1. The Age Of Magrathea 7:14
Bass Guitar - Stuart Hamm
Drums - Marco Minnemann
Guitar [Additional Guitars] - Carter Arrington
Keyboards - Benjamin Croft
Lead Guitar - Greg Howe

2. We Are Here To Help 5:10
Bass Guitar - Billy Sheehan
Drums - Marco Minnemann
Guitar - Carter Arrington
Keyboards - Benjamin Croft
Vocals - Jeff Scott Soto

3. You Made Me Miss 6:48
Bass Guitar - Stuart Hamm
Drums - Simon Phillips
Guitar - Mike Stern
Keyboards - Benjamin Croft

4. Caught In The Flypaper 6:15
Bass Guitar, Guitar [Additional Guitars], Percussion - Dave Marks
Drums - Marco Minnemann
Guitar - Per Nilsson
Keyboards - Benjamin Croft
Vocals - Lynsey Ward

5. Same Siders 5:06
Bass Guitar - Billy Sheehan
Drums - Marco Minnemann
Guitar - Carter Arrington
Keyboards - Benjamin Croft

6. Wrestling With Plato 6:50
Bass Guitar, Guitar [Additional Guitars], Percussion - Dave Marks
Drums - Marco Minnemann
Guitar - Per Nilsson
Keyboards - Benjamin Croft
Vocals - Lynsey Ward

7. Lower Moat Manor 4:51
Bass Guitar - Flo Moore
Drums - Simon Phillips
Guitar - Frank Gambale
Keyboards - Benjamin Croft

8. She Flies Softly On 5:41
Bass Guitar, Guitar [Additional Guitars], Percussion - Dave Marks
Drums - Simon Phillips
Guitar - Per Nilsson
Keyboards - Benjamin Croft
Vocals - Jeff Scott Soto




https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wmU4ddhJmn4



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