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Rocktopus, thank you for your 'Welcome' message.
Your comments are certainly valid, but one of the reasons that I have resisted in making comparisons to others in all of my reviews of Bowers' work, is that when one has the opportunity to listen to any of his works as a 'whole', they most definitely are much more than the 'physical sum of its parts'. I attempted to get this across in my review, and yes, I would agree that if one listens, as you have done, to the excerpts on his website, they are not in isolation particularly 'original or unique', and my reference to 'originality' was made in the context of my response to the overall musical listening experience.
As per my post, whilst researching to find out more about Bowers, I came across the following article, which you might find interesting http://www.tokafi.com/15questions/15-questions-to-graham-bowers/view - http://www.tokafi.com/15questions/15-questions-to-graham-bowers/view
I wrote four reviews of his work, here is the second, it could be (in your words) "Not sure if this is of any interest to you", but it might.
“Transgression” is Bowers’ second release, and it was after buying this and reading the press release which accompanied it, that I was informed that there was to be a third release entitled “Eternal Ghosts” and that the three works were to form a ”Trilogy”. This information was quite useful, as when I first listened, the expectations that I would be hearing a similar format of musical sounds and arrangements to “Of Mary’s Blood” were quite shockingly dashed aside. Although the work is a masterpiece within its’ own right, its’ central position within the other two works adds yet another dimension to it.
The approach to the use of the instruments and their positions within the arrangements is completely different, or is it? it certainly appeared so on the first listening, but less so, now that I am more familiar with the way Bowers works. The intensity of the ambience at any given moment in time is more focused, which in many areas of the work became so potent that a feeling of discomfort is undeniably felt along with a nagging urge to look around to check that one is still alone. The power of the build up and the insatiable climatic resolution of the opening 10 minutes is absolutely unique in my listening experience, leaving me rather nervous as to what might happen next. Quite unexpectedly, it is a long sinuous, twisting, heavily layered vocal chant, at times guttural, at times sweet, but at all times saturated with an overpowering sadness, with the exception of the final phrase that has overtones of optimism.
The following chaotic section has all the hall marks of Commedia del Arte, encompassing all the pathos and patheticness of mankind’s naivety and fragility. It makes reference to the final section of “Of Mary’s Blood”, but pushes this reference nearer and nearer to the ‘edge’ in a cacophony of nonsense, which then, just as dreams shift in their unpredictable way, becomes overlaid with an unusually beautiful melodic motif that wanders off into a multiplicity of layered sounds that hark back to “Of Mary’s Blood”.
The finale of the work is yet another surprise, a fractured, incredibly powerful piece of dis-jointed ‘hard-rock’, where rhythms counter, cross, and unify and musical phrases never quite resolve until one glorious moment, which for me, and maybe others is held for too short a time, but that is what Bowers’ music is about, as the text in the booklet states “Change by the exercise of will through choice, necessity and coercion”
All in all an excellent and classic album that illustrates that Graham Bowers is much more than a ‘one album wonder’
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