THE GUARDIANS

Back in the Nineties a young man from Wales released two albums on SI Music before moving to F2 Music for the third. Back then I was getting all the material from those labels and reviewed his debut all the way back in May 1993. At the time Robert Reed was a one-man band, but he changed that with 1994's 'Pictures From The Other Side', bringing in other musicians, before getting involved with other bands such as Ezra and Fyreworks before forming Magenta which led to the demise of Cyan as an entity. He decided to revisit both the band name and music in 2021 and invited Peter Jones (Camel/Tiger Moth Tales) on vocals, Luke Machin (The Tangent/Maschine) on guitar, and Dan Nelson (Godsticks/Magenta) on bass. Firstly they reworked the debut album, with a few guests such as Angharad Brinn on backing vocals, before tackling 'Pictures' with the above quintet. One of the issues of revisiting old material is that it tends to be changed and morphed, which meant that when they came to compile the album, they realised it was now 95 minutes in length which was too long. Did they really want two epics or was it too much? They decided it was too much, so they cut both "All Around The World" and the original opener, "The Guardians", which used to be twelve minutes long and now had more than doubled in length. These songs form the basis for the new album, along with the newly recorded "Cyan" which is made up of two instrumentals the band used to play when they were originally formed in school in 1984.

Looking back at the review I wrote of 'Pictures' more than 30 years ago it is obvious that "Guardians" made a huge impact on me, so much so that I wrote one of my longest reviews of the time, finishing with "Take it from me, this Cyan album has a lot to offer and deserves better than I have written about it. But will you buy it?" Back then I said I felt the song was heavily influenced by Kansas, but while there are some elements still there in the latest version there is no doubt in my mind that late Seventies Genesis have a lot to answer for as well, while it is no surprise we get some Oldfield sounds here and there. I always felt that Cyan never gained the kudos they deserved, and it is wise decision to not only revisit the songs after so many years, but also bring in musicians who are also well-known, so much so that in many ways it is a modern-day supergroup. Peter Jones is a wonderful talent who apparently seems unable to say no when asked to join a group or help out in a studio, reminding me a great deal of Clive Nolan and Karl Groom back in the Nineties who seemed to be everywhere.

Cyan as an entity are undoubtedly a valid band and never come across as a project and one can only wonder what is going to come next. Are we going to have a new version of 'The Creeping Vine', or is there going to be material? Given the heavy workload of all involved we will have to hold our breath, but when it gets here it will undoubtedly be worth the wait as from the male and female vocals, through the sympathetic rhythm section, biting guitar and dominant keyboards and wonderful songs this is superb.