CRACK THE SKY

This was a very good debut for Crack The Sky. The songs are tight, well written and arranged. Although there are only two complete songs, plus a few instrumental parts on other songs I would say qualify as prog.

One thing that stands out is the way the musicians play together so perfectly. Joe Macre's snaky, rubbery bass is perfectly aligned with Joey D'Amico's drumming. And guitarists Jim Griffiths and Rick Witkowski aound like they grew up playing together.

One standout song is "A Sea Epic", which is, well, a sea epic. I won't give away the punch line. Another good one is "She's A Dancer", a gender-bender song with a great solo section at the end, featuring the Brecker Brothers and David Sanborn on horns. The best song is "Ice", the most proggy song on the record. This song is only four and a half minutes here, but live versions have been know to go over twice that.

Beware of the CD version coupling this album with the awful "White Music". It's missing "Mind Baby" from this album, where, if they needed the space, there are plenty of stinkers they could have dropped from the other album.