ALAN REED: Honey On The Razor's Edge (PROGRESSIVE ROCK): review / opinion to read on Music Waves

After a first solo attempt following his departure from Pallas and Abel Ganz, Alan Reed returned in 2017 with a second effort in his own name, still accompanied by his two companions Scott Higham and Mike Stobbie, to which some illustrious guests (Steve Hackett, Christina Booth) and other well-known Music Waves aficionados (Claude Léonetti - Lazuli, Laetitia Chaudemanche - Weend'o and Monique Van der Kolk - Harvest) have joined.

While some may have doubted Alan Reed's ability to work on his own, it is with an astonishing serenity that the singer, who also plays guitar and bass, reveals his neo-progressive style, directly inherited from the 80s and 90s. Of course, it is difficult not to recognize the influences of Pallas behind the superb overture proposed by 'My Sunlit Room', with its typically neo keyboards and odd rhythm, on which Alan Reed's slightly veiled voice comes to place its characteristic timbre, while the guitars tear the atmosphere.

But quickly, it is rather towards Fish that the musical content will be oriented, whether it is in a punchy track like "Razor" (we even get his famous "Shout" expressive), whose disturbing atmosphere is magnificently reinforced by the Leode, or in the acoustic ballad "Leaving". Blending acoustic (piano, acoustic guitar) and electric sounds and regularly inviting a guitar reminiscent of Mirek Gil's within Collage, Alan Reed delivers fascinating and varied melodies, simple to access but not simplistic.

And when the vocals stop, the musicians manage to deliver us some small instrumental wonders. The best demonstration of this trend is to be found in 'Northern Light' which, after a first part that would be close to the Christmas song if female vocals did not bring a certain class, sends us to the planet convoluted rhythms carried by an impressive Scott Higham and variations around a very simple but captivating ritornello.

For all those who were put off by the excessively metallic evolution of Pallas in the 2000s, Alan Reed offers a magnificent catch-up session, a kind of return to a not so distant past, the one that saw the neo-prog allow the progressive rock as a whole to regain its footing. The primacy of melody over technique without the latter being absent, variety of arrangements and sounds, permanent accessibility, "Honey on the Razor's Edge" borders on the flawless and has all the arguments to inspire the greatest number of people. - Official website

ALAN REED

HONEY ON THE RAZOR'S EDGE

WHITE KNIGHT

PROGRESSIVE ROCK