A SEQUENCE OF MISTAKES

Australia's answer to Mike Oldfield with its measured dynamics and sense of multicultural restraint. This album is a grower with the emotional hooks sinking themselves into you after repeated listens. 'Tear Gas' sees an experiment into Anathema-like territories with the clear female vocals being juxtaposed against Stawman's fragile tone. Beautiful vocal melodies and sonic exploration atypical of modern Neo Prog. In fact, I do not hear much of the neo prog sound on this at all, I think SJS would be best categorised as Crossover Prog on ProgArchives. The sound featured on his 3rd record (and his first two) would be much more at home along the peers in that subgenre.

The record feels somehow like a more cohesive band arrangment though it's clear SJS himself is the man behind the music. A special shoutout to the smooth and graceful bass parts delivered by Soulos that pepper the songs with a class often unheard.

I was moved by this record and SJS is criminally underrated.

This is the third album from Stuart J Strawman (yes, his initials form the name of the band), and he is again joined by the same core who played on 2021's 'The Unlikely Event' with Graeme James (drums), Christopher Soulos (upright & electric bass), and Douglas Skene (guitar) while Stuart wrote the songs, provided vocals and guitars and engineered and produced everything. He has been based in Australia for exactly half his lifetime and has recently been in touch with British family, and ended up in contact with his cousin, Richard Naisbett who he invited to contribute keyboards to this release. Richard is also in a duo with singer Kirsty Forster, and she was also invited to get involved so the band are now Australian/Anglo, and it is unlikely they will ever all be in the same room at the same time but it certainly never sounds like that.

The only person who is on every track is Stuart, but this never seems like a project, but much more like a band outing. He describes his music as Neo but to these poor abused ears he has missed the mark in that this is far more in the realm of Crossover than anything else. It is an album which I did not enjoy very much the first time of hearing, but I never review anything unless it has been played a few times as often it is only in later playing that the quality shines through and that is the case here. It is a very atmospheric album, with hints of Pink Floyd here and there with plenty of drama, while it is much more Oldfield in its outlook in others. In some ways the melodies are quite simplistic but they are taken to new levels with the arrangements. Stuart started his career as an engineer, working with the likes of Talk Talk, Gilmour and Tears for Fears, and one can certainly hear what impact those relationships have had on his own music.

It is an album which benefits from being played on headphones multiple times, as it is only then that the listener will fully understand what Stuart is trying to achieve and it is only then that the real beauty contained within comes through. I have not heard his previous albums, so cannot say if he has moved with this one, but the addition of Kirsty with the call and response in opener "Tear Gas" is a delight and it will be interesting to hear if he uses her more in the next album. There are some hidden depths in here which do take a while to come to light but it is more than worth the effort.