THE HARMONY CODEX

I was excited to go on a journey with Steven's new album. I'd heard the singles and was intrigued to see what general direction his music would be taking now.

I've only listened to the record once. First impressions are that the production is superb. I guess you would expect that from Steven who has been producing remixes of classic prog albums for a few years now. He's clearly got a great ear (or two!).

Now for the music...the soundscape is cold, glacial, largely electronic (apart from vocals) and generally uninvolving, at least for me. I couldn't feel any emotional connection with this music. It's certainly cinematic in scope, but like many movie soundtracks, suitable mainly as background music. I found a lot of the tracks were long and very similar, and the melodies were not very memorable. Nothing really stands out apart from the more traditional songs. The most striking tracks - Economies of Scale, What Life Brings and Impossible Tightrope - were released as singles before the album release. The other tracks consist mainly of electronic arpeggios (Tangerine Dream influence, perhaps?), sometimes drums and vocals.

The title track 'The Harmony Codex' consists of repetitive chord changes and a somewhat pretentious voice-over which is repeated in the end track, Staircase. The voice-over reminded me of a similar female voice from the William Orbit track 'Water from a Vine Leaf'.

One thing I will say for the music is that it goes in unexpected directions. There are, what I think of, as 'Wilson-esque' chord changes which are an immediate antidote to the hackneyed chord changes you hear in top ten singles these days which all sound the same. Although I found Steven's longer instrumental tracks to be very similar to each other, this is unusual music. Apart from a bit of conspicuous guitar, it's mostly electronic and is the evolution of The Future Bites rather than a throwback to Steven's earlier albums such as Grace for Drowning.

Although I really respect Steven as an artist and for fearlessly doing his own thing, I have felt, over the years, that he and I are diverging in terms of the kind of music I enjoy and like to listen to. I found this offering flat and unemotional. It's possible that I'm wrong and that I would enjoy it more if I listened more, but I don't feel inclined to since my first listen was so unrewarding. I can respect this music, but I didn't enjoy it. It's better than The Future Bites, but in my world, that's not saying much.

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