SELECTIVE HEARING

US composer and multi-instrumentalist has been a busy man for the five or so past years, with a flurry of releases to his name using half a dozen different monikers in this time span. And "Selective Hearing" is sort of a Best Of collection of his material.

Personally I'm not highly tempted to check out the rest of his efforts based on this sampler though. I'll give him credit for being a talented composer, he's good at creating engaging themes and groovy melodies. Arnold has a pleasant voice too, which is always a good thing. The instrumental skills seems to be more of a so-so variety though, and the drums (or is it drum machine) is downright appalling. The main negative aspect on this disc is the mix and production though, which made me think of home made demo tapes by young bands in the 80's. Unbalanced, weird sounding instrumental timbres and many elements coming across as disharmonic as a direct result of the mix and production.

If you generally like the less complex side of symphonic progressive rock and are more concerned with the compositions themselves than the performance and production you might find yourself a goodie here. Anyone else should approach this disc with a fair bit of caution.