RAIN FALLS IN GREY

It took me years before I picked this up simply because it's a tribute album to Syd Barrett so naturally I thought there would be a lot of quirky, psychedelic tunes of the shorter variety with plenty of humour. Well not so at all. This is more like a tribute to PINK FLOYD after the "Pipers..." album where we get these dark and heavy psychedelic tunes stretched out and man what a great job this band does with that style. And no I'm not surprised at how good this is being that RMI are right at the top when it comes to my favourite Electronic bands. The way they use guitar, drums and mellotron with the electronics is incredible. So not much of a stretch for these guys to go in the Psychedelic direction with way less electronics. Some guest sax, clarinet, flute and electric violin here as well.

We get seven tracks all in a similar style and really the only hiccup for me is the song "Legacy" but at 3 1/2 minutes it's not a big deal. "Rain Falls In Grey..." is the over 17 minute opener that opens with experimental sounds in atmosphere before a heavy beat arrives around 3 minutes. A horn after 4 minutes and it turns dissonant. Organ takes the lead for a while then guitar. Just a great sound here around 7 minutes in. Love the vocal melodies 10 1/2 minutes in that last to the 12 minute mark. More guitar before the mellotron arrives before 15 minutes. So good!

"Bett'r Days" opens with heavy drums and organ before the bass arrives. Just a great sound overall here then the guitar starts to solo over top. It winds down some after 5 minutes and even more after 8 minutes before turning quite spacey. "Shut Up" is very spacey, haunting and experimental. An excellent number.

"Syd" is under 3 minutes of bliss, quite dark, heavy and psychedelic. "Emissary" is headphone music for sure early on. We get drums before 3 1/2 minutes and a horn after 4 1/2 minutes. Some nice guitar before a dissonant horn comes in late. "...Far Away" ends it with a lone guitar to start and this will continue for some time as it cries out in atmosphere. Bass will help out along with mellotron later on as it all builds.

This is a must for fans of heavy Psychedelic music. The mellotron is a bonus of course but man this is my kind of music. Closer to 4.5 stars.