DISTANCE BETWEEN US

Don Bradshaw-Leather was quite the obscure artist. Little is known about his life, and from what I can find, the photos of him on his one and only solo album are possibly the only known photos of him currently available. The solo album he left us, Distance Between Us, is a collection of four sidelong suites that are titled Distance Between Us parts one and two, Dance of the Goblins, and Autumn Mist. It's a great experience that reached beyond my expectations for an album listed as only having piano, percussion, mellotron, other keyboards, and Don's background voice. It's entirely instrumental, with the album mainly being focused around percussion and piano melodies accompanied by mellotron work in a dark gothic form. The name of the album is both misleading and fitting because it doesn't have any relation to love (at first glance the phrase "Distance Between Us" sounds like he's referring to someone he loves), and yet the music, as I've mentioned before, sounds incredibly depressing and perfectly fits the idea of loneliness and sadness. One of the main complications about the album, however, was the fact that maybe Don put too much emphasis on the distant mellotron work and the same riffs on other instruments for extended periods of time (in other words, it gets a little stale when he plays the concepts for over an hour), and the sound quality could be a lot better. Also, a quick note I would like to mention is that seeing how this album was labeled as krautrock, I was surprised at how different this record was from the rest of the krautrock albums that go into this sub genre, but I also thought it made sense for krautrock to be the best way to fit this into the progarchives. Moving on, this is still an incredibly strong one and done artist.  

The album begins with part one of the title track, which is, in my opinion, the strongest one on the album. It opens with these dark, deep, and haunting descending rhythms before going into the actual song. The distant, scratching sounds of the mellotron add another layer to the suspense that's already building. The scary vibes continue up until the mellotron and piano dust stops, and the percussion begins. It feels more like a symphony from the 18th and 17th centuries rather than simply Krautrock, and branches into the same repeating drum beat accompanied by the mellotron again. This section sounds a lot more sad than the opening sequence, but is still strong. Some of Don's keyboards also feel like a string quartet, which I found pretty cool. Around the nine-minute mark, the song switches out the mellotron for a restrained-sounding organ and the orchestral sound of the keyboards much more pronounced. There is an organ solo for two minutes before we are left with that same percussion melody. Before we assume we're going to get a lengthy percussion section, Don jumps back into the organ, this time with a piano added in. Eventually, the main keyboard work is wrapped up for the song, and this is where we get simple spoken noises accompanied by a new percussion tune, still accompanied by a grand piano. This can be seen as a form of free jazz, with Don making enough room for a highly experimental yet jazzy piano solo. This finishes side one and the first part of the title track, with the second part being the next track.  

Similar to part one, this has a similarly classical opening with what seems to be equivalent to a tuning session at the start before going into another frighteningly down-tuned piece, with the mellotron being added in once more. When the piano stops, we are left with this goulash ending and a repeat of the area I was referring to, this time with added percussion. I like how when it's just an isolated mellotron, for a while it only plays in one ear, adding suspense for the listener to wait for when the mellotron will join in the other ear. At the end of the mellotron work, we are left with the music of a piano that is akin to the meaning of pure distraught. It's a form of "depressing" that I can't really describe. And yet, it's got a strange beauty to it. It rises and falls in its dynamics that left me feeling fulfilled by this song's worth. Sure, it's not as good as part one, but this most definitely had the most emotional moments within its boundaries. As the mellotron joins in for yet another time, it all but adds to the moment. Despite this, Don decides to break the tension for a fast-paced series of sporadic notes. This part is good, but I wish he had kept building on that original moment until the end. The ending to this suite is a short mellotron bit of music that's alright, but I feel could've had a bit more interesting stuff added to it. Overall, disc one was a strong 4/5, and Don could've easily stopped the album here and left it that, but instead he decided to make this record a double album. Not a bad decision (I was really grateful that it was a double album), but I think the work he did for a double album might've exhausted him a little and made him end his solo career.  

Disc two begins with Dance of the Goblins, and itself is the only one to open with Don's percussion instead of adding it after he let the keys breathe. It's again a chilling experience with there being, once more, a mellotron solo. I think this album is good and all, but the idea of its minimalist concepts has a polarizing effect. For starters, it adds a whole lot of potential with the whole scary factor that is continuous throughout the album, but on the other hand, the idea of the same types of instruments can get dry at points. The percussion and mellotron grow louder and louder with more technicality, adding more and more to the building suspense, leading to the belief of a crescendo. However, it keeps the listeners hair standing with the spooky soundscape and the fact that the song keeps on growing and dying in a sense of power, keeping it away from dying all together but also stopping it from breathing. Don eventually moves away from the percussion duo with the mellotron and goes on to play simple mellotron and some background noises and tunes. Soon enough, we're just left with the mellotron as this extensive solo dies out after all this time of nonstop playing.  

Autumn Mist is the last and longest, with a runtime of over twenty-three minutes. It starts with that piano sound all too familiar on this album already, of course being accompanied by a distant mellotron. This song sounds a lot more scratchy than the others, but in my opinion that adds to the eerie feeling. The piano drops in and out a couple of times before sticking to the same rhythm, along with the mellotron still doing its own thing. After the mellotron is left all by itself, it switches from the calm yet scarily patient-sounding solos to a screeching effect that rumbles throughout the entire sound system I was using to listen to this song. Soon enough, this power ends and moves back into the somber tone of the album. We get one more grand piano piece before and some cool mechanical percussion along with one more mellotron part before Don wraps up the album, leaving the listener with the same feeling as a cliffhanger. The depressing music is almost tearjerking at this moment and is such a great way to leave the album. This song, in my opinion, is the weakest one on the album. There's just not a lot going on, and the scary feel that has been in every song just isn't as present as it was on other songs. All in all, disc two was strong (a light 4/5, maybe a 3.5/5) and has its moments.  

In conclusion, this album is a flawed yet compelling album. It has the potential to be labeled as a masterpiece of modern classicalism and avant-garde music, but in the end it'll be labeled as simply a great record for most likely the rest of time. The problems I mentioned in my opening paragraph drag down my rating of this record. If I'm going to be honest, I'm not surprised that this artist wasn't able to produce a second album. Making a double album of this nature is incredibly difficult, and there was a very slim chance music like that was going to sell well and get the money needed to make a living. So for my conclusion, I'm giving the album a light 4/5. It's great, but can use some cleaning up in certain places.