THE HORROR SHOW

Ian Gordon, from Bolton, in the UK is a multi-instrumentalist singer and composer, who have been very productive since the release of the double CD "The Box" in 2011. In this release, Ian was showing a lot of potential as a songwriter and musician with well-crafted songs that can be developed in long instrumental breaks. The voice tone is very close to David Bowie, which is a good thing and makes the music even more enjoyable. Here we are, a few years later, with another concept-double CD "Horror Show" with 2 guest musicians, including Rob Heyes (guitars and vocals). The CD starts with no less than 3 epics that run through 20 minutes duration! The music of Ian is a Neo-Prog that is delivering some delightful symphonic passages, dark atmosphere with a good use of retro-Prog sounds, like mellotron and Taurus bass pedals. The music is at times largely dominated by a wall of keyboards, especially in the first part of the CD, but the guitars and bass have their share of space, because the songs are breaking many times into some heavy and smoother turnaround.

The vocals are pretty busy, and it's the first time that I can say that I really enjoy that much the production and sounds of the music here. Every instruments and the voice is coming out clear with a high level of quality in each compositions, despite the 2 hours marathon. It should be notice that the second part of the material here (tracks 4 to 10) take us back to 10 years of work, and shows a different kind of songs than the first 3 epics. The guitars played a more dominant role and the keyboards take a step back. I really enjoy the narration in the music, because the purpose was to tell a story behind the music. And the artist has succeeded to illustrate that story with dark atmosphere, some violent and heavy breaks that show influences of Spock's Beard, The Watch and Simon Says. But all this tempered with some calm and more joyful parts, acoustics typical of big epic songs that get you through many moods.

So with this long 2 hours of material, the listener is taking on a journey where he goes from sentimental moments, to harder rock, weird moments with frightening themes. Is it the breakthrough of Ian Gordon in the world of Progressive Rock or is he continues to work on the shadows of the most popular bands? If some listeners had some doubts about the talents of this musician, this CD should clear those out for good.