FOR KING AND COUNTRY

3.5 stars, really. I finally found Cyan´s first CD after a long time looking for it. I was quite surprised by its qualities, specially considering it was Robert Reed´s first release and he was playing and singing everything. So don´t expect the excellent symphonic sounds of Magenta or Christina Booth´s vocals. This is a work based mostly on a demo tape he recorded back in 1984. With that fact in mind, I must say For King And Country does remind me a lot of that period of time: the timbres of his synthesizers, specially. As Robert Reed is the sole player and singer here I must admit he does a fine job. Ok, he is not the best of singers and the electronic drums are annoying sometimes, but that´s just the only let downs on the entire CD. And his work on the guitar and, specially, on the keyboards is nothing short of brilliance.

If you want a comparison, For King And Country harks back to Pendragon´s The Jewel and Kowtow period (yes, lots of mid-70´s Genesis-like synth sounds). Even his vocals here are reminiscent of Nick Barrett. Better still, the synth sounds are as majestic and creative as Clive Nolan´s. And we should never forget to mention his excellent songwriting: the guy was already doing a fine job at this department. Although not a masterpiece and with not real highlights, the CD flows evenly with good tunes all the way, some instrumentals, some with vocals, but all good ones. Sometimes, like in Nightflight, the music gives hints of what he would be doing in his future band Magenta.

All in all a very consistent album that will please anyone who enjoys 80´s neo prog. It was a nice surprise, I still think that Cyan reached its peak with the excellent The Creeping Vine, but this debut was a worthy and promising start that, fortunately, was fulfilled on Reed´s future works.