Covenant

BTM Band
Conductors: Jeremy Wise, Jason Katsikaris, Philip Harper
BTM Sound Recordings: BTMS CD3
Total Playing Time: 76.38

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The BTM Band (the BTM stands for the three small villages of Bedwas, Trethomas and Machen) is enjoying something of a renaissance at present and is currently forcing its way back towards the top of the banding tree both in Wales and the UK. 

2007 has been a pretty good year so far and the partnership they have struck up with the Australian Jason Kasikaris holds rich promise for the future. The band itself has a reputation as being one of the most hard working as well as innovative ensembles around and that strength now seems to be paying dividends – something that was shown with their recent performance at the 2007 National Finals.

This release comes from their own in house recording arm, BTM Sound and the 9 tracks were all recorded at their bandroom during the period October 2005 to May 2006. That perhaps explains why there are three conductors at the helm!

The tracks showcase the band in contesting mode – both with the recording of the entertainment programme they used at the 2006 Yeovil ‘Brass at the Octagon’ contest under the direction of Jeremy Wise and with the three major test pieces which they prepared for contests in the following 12 months.

The Yeovil programme is something of an aperitif for the meatier main courses to follow and is well enough played even if the acoustic of the BTM bandroom is not perhaps the most forgiving.  Jeff Hutcherson delivers a solid performance of ‘Song & Dance’ whilst percussionist Jordan Williams obviously enjoys himself on ‘Sing, Sing, Sing’. Elsewhere ‘Liberty Fanfare’ is bright and breezy, Kenneth Downie’s ‘In Perfect Piece’ is rounded and well balanced and ‘Shine As the Light’ is neatly packaged.  That they eventually came 11th at the contest perhaps tells you that there was still a bit of polish required in places though.

William Himes ‘Procession to the Covenant’ is well buffed up however and perhaps shows that the Katsikaris effect was certainly starting to work at the time it was recorded. The same can also be said of a colourful ‘Journey to the Centre of the Earth’ also under his direction, which really does have a stamp of rehearsed precision about it.  

Unfortunately ‘Eden’ suffers in comparison under the direction of Philip Harper and is a workmanlike performance at best – scrappy and technically insecure at worse. Things are restored however with ‘Harmony Music’ which is given a enjoyable romp under Jason Katsikaris and benefits from some super euphonium playing from Mark Hutcherson in particular.

As a release this recording perhaps doesn’t quite show off BTM to their best, and it may have been a better idea to use a much more sympathetic acoustic to record in too.  There are though the glimpses of quality throughout which have now borne fruit in recent months. BTM are a fine band in the making – perhaps another recording in 12 months time will show just how good they really are.

Iwan Fox

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