Wonders of the World

PolySteel Band
Conductor: Philip Harper
Featuring: Richard Knight, Carolyn Chandler, Julia Telling, Chris Howley, Mark Hadlington, Paul Wood, Andrew Norman, Steve Jones.
MISC Recording: MISC02
Total Playing Time: Approx 72 minutes

~ Buy with 4barsrest shopping

The PolySteel Band, formerly known as the Flowers Band from Gloucester has gained a well deserved reputation for being one of the most innovative and entertaining concert ensembles in the UK.

It is no coincidence that this has come about during the period in which the very talented musician, composer and arranger Philip Harper has been at the helm, and in the past few years in particular they have carved out an almost unique niche for themselves with their brand of high tempo, slickly played and highly choreographed concert repertoire.

It has however come with perhaps a price: For all their undoubted talents both in front of and around the stands, they are an annoyingly inconsistent contesting outfit. This is a band that should be playing year in year out at the National Finals and the British Open, but somehow they contrive through a combination of bad luck and a little self imposed musical hara-kiri to only show fleeting glimpses of their true class on test pieces in particular. If they can crack that in 2006 they will be a band to fear and enjoy wherever they go.

The concert stage holds no fears though and this classy recording gives ample evidence of how good they are when the shackles of set test contesting are dropped.

'Wonders of the World' may be a neat wordplay as a marketing title, but the playing itself does live up to the billing hype. The concept of the release is based around the bands concert repertoire and in particular Peter Graham's clever and effective musical cruise in his ‘Windows of the World'.   Intelligently interspersed between these elements are a number of differing tracks from Philip Harper and the likes of Sandy Smith, Joyce Bacack, Ray Farr and Bin Kaneda, so that overall we get a musical portrait of five continents: North and South America, Asia, Africa and Europe – if a little geographically mixed and matched.

It is though a clever idea brought to fruition by a combination of top-notch arrangements and some excellent performances.

We first visit ‘The Americas' with Pete Graham's thumping ‘Amazonia' which leads directly (a clever idea) with percussion bridge into ‘Salsa Pa'Gozar' which the band play in wonderful fashion. PolySteel are one of very few (and we do mean very few) bands who can play this type of Latin American dance music with comfort and this is excellent stuff. A quick diversion to the atmospheric ‘Rainforest' rounds off the opening musical continent in style, helped by some cracking playing from the soloists.

Next up Asia with the highlight of the whole release, two extended items – the Japanese Folk Song Suite, ‘Warabe Uta' and ‘The Legend of Sangeet' which takes its inspiration from the dusty plains of the Indian sub continent. There is some wonderful playing here from Julia Telling in particular, but a special mention must be made of the percussion section led by Steve Jones that throughout the recording is quite splendid and brings a whole host of colour and timbre to every item, whilst the band is compact and cohesive in its playing and captures the sense and spirit of both pieces so well.

The return to the Americas to close the disc is also excellent with some classy performances on items such as ‘Birdland' which features some real fruity bass trombone as well as another cracking bit of Salsa work and three excerpts from ‘Windows of the World'.

If we do have a gripe though, it is because Africa is perhaps represented with the two weakest items on what is a high quality selection of music, with ‘Drums of Thunder' and ‘The Circle of Life' from the ‘Lion King'.

Why is it that so many people think of Africa as a sub Saharan paradise of naïve tribes, Disney inspired lovable animals and a land unspoilt by the demands of urbanisation?  What of the music and culture of Egypt, Nigeria or Morroco? Why is it that it has always got to be this type of stereotypical output all the time? Given the real beauty of Philip Harper's exploration of India and the lovely treatment of Japanese inspired music you are left thinking just how cheap this sounds, even if it is well played.

You can also say the same for the European continent which for some unknown reason features three ‘Celtic' inspired pieces in the form of ‘Celtic Dream' from ‘Windows of the World' followed by the ubiquitous ‘Riverdance', and then ‘The Irish Blessing'. Has Europe been over run by the Celtic nations then with a diet of Guinness and lava bread, bodhran's and twinkle toed dancers?  Heaven help the EU if we have.

Despite our reservations about the choice of music to represent two of the continents here (some could say, what about Antarctica then?) this is a well produced and enjoyable release from a band that has real quality about it.

Philip Harper is an exceptionally talented musician who brings great ideas to life. PolySteel respond in kind here as well with excellent individual and ensemble contributions, but perhaps a bit more thought might have gone into a couple of the sections. Overall though this is a classy and well delivered piece of work.

Iwan Fox

~ Buy with 4barsrest shopping

^back to top