CALM BEFORE THE STORM

It's hard to find much information about this Paul Brett effort, even the year of release. In fact, the near omnipresence of cheesy new age keyboards raises questions about whether this is in fact the same Paul Brett who is a world renowned 12 string guitarist and not a bad lead player. "Mercury the Messenger", the opener, is devoid of any such contribution but is nonetheless perhaps the best entirely electronic piece here thanks to reasonable development, not unlike some of PETE BARDENS' later work.

Luckily Brett does enough axe-work to lift this disc well above the average California baby-boomer Zen. This is especially true of "Metamorphosis" which begins acoustically mellow before his plaintive MIKE OLDFIELD styled lead makes its first of several welcome entrances on this album, all the while underpinned by the expressive acoustic work. Brett sports a flamenco style on "Wave Dancer", with a middle section that will have any budding guitarist drooling, even if the synth accompaniment is a bit tacky. Probably the best cut here is "All that Mine Eyes Can See", with bright celtic inspired acoustic work that references his earlier classics. Just in case you missed it here, the main tune of the title cut of his "Eclipse" album is reprised at the start of "The Altar and the Crown", which then wisely breaks away and becomes its own worthwhile exercise in closing this gentle oeuvre.

While you might want to stay clear of what is basically a new age effort, "Calm Before the Storm" does showcase enough of Paul Brett's prowess as musician and arranger to warrant due credit, even if this is so calm it's liable to put the pending storm to sleep.