ENGLISH GHOSTS

Konchordat were formed in 2009 by Steve Cork (bass, piano, keyboards, acoustic guitar) and Lee Harding (vocals, piano, keyboards, acoustic guitar, drums, programming) and with some guest guitarists set about recording 'English Ghosts'. But, when listening back they realised that the quality was so poor that it was pretty much unusable, so Steve asked one of those guitarists, Stuart Martin, if there was anything he could do to salvage it. Eventually they realised that a remix wasn't going to achieve anything so Stuart and Steve set about re-recording most the album again, apart from some of the keyboard parts, and this is the result. In some ways, it is quite surprising to realise that this release is as late as it is, as in many ways this feels that this is from the early Nineties. It is good solid neo prog, with some lengthy numbers (the title cut is nearly twenty minutes long).

What lets this down though, are the vocals. They just aren't strong enough, and the impression is that this would be a much stronger band altogether if they had a real singer, and it is of little surprise to me that Lee hasn't been involved in the band since this release. Musically they have been paying close attention to bands from the early Nineties, and while Citizen Cain are one of the bands that are obvious, as are IQ, the most obvious is Galahad. There are signs of real promise within the music, but there is always the feeling that this isn't the full article and there are things that could have been done to make it better, but given the issues they had suffered during the recording it is amazing they got it out at all. Solid, with some good points here and there, but not essential.