STRAIGHT ON TILL MORNING

British keyboardist,born in Emsworth, Hampshire in 1955.He started his career next to Robert John Godfrey with The Enid,which he left in 1976 to join the progresive rock band Autumn.By 1978 Autumn had disbandeed and the future found Nick Magnus next to Steve Hackett,with whom he spent eleven years both on studio and on stage.During the 80's he would also work as a session keyboardist for various artists,among them Renaissance,Peter Bardens of Camel and Chris Rea.Since 1990 Nick Magnus followed a personal career and in 1993 he released his debut album ''Straight On Till Morning'' on Voiceprint.

Nick plays and arranges all instruments on this album,except on a couple of tracks,where he is helped by guitarist Jay Stapley of Roger Waters and Mike Oldfield fame.The instrumental album has a dreamy and optimistic view all the way with melodic solos on guitars and ethereal keyboards and piano,often with an evident symphonic tendency.However the overall sound is not that adventurous.It has a strong commercial vibe met also both in Hackett's and Oldfield's later works with Magnus only trying to produce pleasant,cheesy and happy pieces of orchestrated music despite his good skills,while part of his keyboard work sounds very cheap.Additionally the sampled flutes,percussion and wind instruments sounds very dull as well.The lack of additional instruments is a matter of discussion too.On the other hand most of them are well-arranged,the production is bright and clear and some of them contain hints of good Symphonic Rock music with a New Age atmosphere.And the guitars,where present,are fine, producing some good melodies.

''Straight On Till Morning'' is a classic example of an albumcontaining all the light mistakes of a debut as well as a one-man project.One-dimensional style with plenty of ups and downs,the album has good chances to be likeable only as background music.Not exactly recommended,except you search for some good and pleasant background music.