Red Guitar Music

News, reviews and more

  • Home
  • News
  • Album Reviews
  • Live Reviews
  • Features
    • The Baker's Dozen
    • Inside The Song
  • Interviews
  • Tour News
  • Contact

Downes Braide Association (DBA) - Halcyon Hymns (Album Review)

February 04, 2021 by David Vousden in Album Reviews, AOR, Classic Rock, DVD, Melodic Rock, Pop, Progressive Rock, Rock

Downes Braide Association aka DBA originally started as a collaborative studio project in 2012 between Christopher Braide a Brit working in the USA writing and producing music for film scores, advertising campaigns and with a host of rock and pop artists (Sia, Lana Del Rey, Christina Aguilera, Beyonce, Paloma Faith, Britney Spears, Marc Almond) and keyboardist Geoffrey Downes of YES, Buggles and Asia fame. Eight years later and the duo had three albums under their belt while tentative forays into live performance in 2018 (resulting in a live record) and again in 2020 had proved successful. After the live shows in early 2020, Braide found himself in a bit of a funk when Marc Almond called and suggested he look at the possibility of a new DBA record to get the creative juices flowing. Braide delved into some musical ideas from Downes and inspiration struck immediately. Compositional ideas and snatches of melody quickly began to take shape and resulted is Halcyon Hymns, a record that perfectly captures feelings and memories of a time and a place when everything seemed so much simpler.

Read More
February 04, 2021 /David Vousden
Geoff Downes, Chris Braide, YES, Asia, Buggles, DBA, Downes Braide Association, Roger Dean, Big Big Train, Marc Almond
Album Reviews, AOR, Classic Rock, DVD, Melodic Rock, Pop, Progressive Rock, Rock
Comment

Nick D'Virgilio (NDV) - Invisible (Album Review)

June 25, 2020 by David Vousden in Album Reviews, Classic Rock, Progressive Rock, Rock, Singer-Songwriter

In these days of short attention spans and instant gratification, there’s something very refreshing about sitting down with your favourite beverage, placing an album on/in the stereo and letting an artist take you on a musical journey. Nick D’Virgilio has been on a personal musical journey that began a few years before the release of his debut solo album back in 2001. Nick is probably best known for his time in Spock’s Beard where he started as the drummer and branched out into frontman duties. But this association barely scratches the surface of a varied and interesting CV; there’s an ongoing relationship with Big Big Train – and fifteen years working with Tears For Fears - while still finding time to record and/or perform with many of the best in the business including the late Kevin Gilbert, Mike Keneally (Frank Zappa) and a five-year stint as drummer/singer/assistant bandleader with the Cirque Du Soleil organisation touring their Totem show. For ‘Invisible’ Nick D’Virgilio (NDV) pulls together elements from all of his various musical endeavours and throws in a left turn or two on an obvious labour of love that finds the singer/drummer/multi-instrumentalist at the top of his game.

Read More
June 25, 2020 /David Vousden
Nick D'Virgilio, NDV, Big Big Train, Spock's Beard, Tears For Fears, Genesis
Album Reviews, Classic Rock, Progressive Rock, Rock, Singer-Songwriter
Comment
News RSS
Album Reviews RSS
Live Reviews RSS
Foreign Music CDJapan

Red Guitar Music is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.co.uk and affiliated sites.

Powered by Squarespace