HEXAMERON

One may quibble with the retro aspects of Nick Magnus' solo work, such as essentially re-uniting the moving parts of that glorious STEVE HACKETT band for the umpteenth time, while they remain as electrifying as ever . One may question his abutment of lulling vaporous instrumentals against more orthodox popular songs, while what seems most illuminating is how nobody can agree on which, if either, overturns the ox cart. One may demand wherefore he includes convincing odes to Celtic splendor that would make CLANNAD, CAPERCAILLIE, ALTAN, and ROSE AMONG THORNS blush, while brusquely waving off the considered possibility that the man is evolving and that one axis of this hexameron might sprout a fiddle, tin whistle and a windswept yarn or two. But what is undeniable is the facile musicality of it all. It would seem that Magnus' work on several mammoth recorded and live productions in the 1990s has endowed him with a compiler's acumen without obscuring his melodic muse. If the album does crest anywhere, it does so on the merging of the sweeping "Brother Sun Sister Moon" piloted by vocalist Pete Hicks with the dazzling Hackett shiver fest that is "Seven Hands of Time", which would have been one of the, if not THE, high point on almost any of Steve's best early excursions. Nick Magnus may not be defining a new genre but his resurgence here embodies the soul and heart of a time before so many of our heroes let us down, and it does so six ways to Sunday.