FOR TRUTH

'For Truth' is Marc Carlton's 7th album. Carlton has taken a different approach to this album compared to his previous 2 releases. This change in direction as installed a different dynamic and freshness to his music which is there for all to hear. This is a 9 track album where each track is self contained rather than being various parts of a longer track like 'Reflex Arc' and 'Ovriah, but still has over arching themes'.

The first track, 'For Truth' starts off slowly and gradually gathers pace over the first 3 minutes, acting as a nice build up using the synthesiser until 3 minutes 40 seconds where the guitar comes in, as crisp and as pure as ever. The track lasts for 12 minutes and is a great start to the album. Carlton once again shows off his ability and talent of creating longer tracks while conveying a relative simplicity to the listener which have that added depth to give the more a tentative listener a challenging listen. This makes the album's longevity longer which in turn makes it more appealing. What I mean by this is that it appears that the songs are easy to listen to on the surface. But when you really look into all the layers of the music and think that every instrument is played by Carlton himself. Makes everything all the more impressive.

Track 2., 'One possible dream' is another 10 minute plus track and shows how good a guitarist Marc is. Every pluck is so powerful and well thought out. It shows an artist who has gone way past just knowing just 3 chords; but someone who knows every fret and chord like the back of his hand.

Track 3 goes back to synthesiser land while 'Caught into the Fourth wall, the fifth track starts off as an eerie affair with a xylophone sound with a synthesiser backdrop. The xylophone type beats continue right the way through the song and when the electric guitar comes in at around the 4 minutes 30 seconds mark it is like a storm has passed over and not caused any damage. People are returning to their normal lives as the music has certain tranquillity about it at this point.

'Mind fire', the sixth track, picks up the pace and continues the electric guitar theme from the last track. At the two minute mark and even more powerful guitar sound comes in and repeats the same riff for a minute until the mood the song takes a dramatic shift from light to dark, going through a quiet acoustic jungle, as if any loud sound will wake up the dangers that are roaming the dense jungle.

The album finishes with a flourish. 'Reason or Die', explodes into life halfway through the track with some fine electric guitar work. It is if throughout the album there is a battle between light and dark, good against evil - Reason or Die. In this case it's like good prevails and overcomes evil. It is an excellent way to finish what is a well thought out and well constructed album.

Overall Carlton manages to not only sustain the high standard of work set by his previous albums but exceed it. The different approach he took to write and develop the album has kept things interesting not only for him but the listener too and has created something magical and timeless.

Not grandiloquent at all

"For truth" is Marc Carlton's latest album at time of writing, although he has recently completed work on "The far tide", a computer game related project. Released in 2009, this is is first full length album since "Reflex arc" in 2005, the interim "Ovriah" being a mini- album of material mostly written some years previously.

As with all his releases, Carlton writes, arranges and performs all the music himself. The theme of the album is a lamenting of the way genuine "truth" has been lost in a world of "subjective" truth, or as Carlton enigmatically puts it "rendered grandiloquent by postmodernist scorn".

This time around the tracks which make up the album are self contained pieces, with no attempt being made to link them together to form a whole. Thus we begin with the relatively lively 12 minute title track, which sees Carlton arguably at his most ambitious, then move directly into an equally long solo acoustic guitar rendition entitled "One Possible Dream". The latter resembles some of the more relaxed works of Steve Hackett or Anthony Phillips, the track as a whole displaying Carlton's admirable guitar virtuosity.

"Ghosts Where Once We Hid" is a fine arrangement of symphonic string synthesiser and acoustic guitar, similar to Vivaldi's "Guitar concerto" as adapted by Continuum and also Steve Howe. "Intersection Minor" is the first of a couple of brief interlude pieces, Steve Hackett's influence once again being apparent on this "Blood on the rooftops" like acoustic guitar rendition.

"Caught In The Fourth Wall" has a rather spacey atmosphere to begin with, before moving into perhaps the heaviest territory Carlton has ever allowed himself to stray into. There is a rather doomy undercurrent to the music here which belies any notion that Marc does not have ambitions beyond the pleasant and relaxing. Things brighten up again with "Mindfire", where melodic guitar is backed by symphonic strings.

"Return From Fading Landscapes" is the final track to breach 10 minutes (the album runs to over 70 minutes in total). Here we have an odd blend of the light and the dark, with melodic twinkling being counterpointed by some decidedly darker moods. Carlton's lead guitar work is the high point here.

The second of the interlude pieces is naturally called "Intersection Major" this "Horizons" like track running to under 2 minutes. The closing "Reason Or Die" draws together the moods and sounds of the album in a single, beautifully crafted piece. Chorale and string keyboards blend with some fine lead guitar and surprisingly intrusive percussion to create a track which is more demanding of the listener than the bulk of Carlton's work.

In all, "For truth" stands as Marc Carlton's most accomplished work to date. Here, he displays a confidence in both the technology he uses and his own talents, allowing him to explore more challenging territories than hitherto. The tenets which have serve him well on previous albums are still reassuringly in evidence, but here he uses those values as a foundation from which he builds something truly inspired.