MORE GRAINS OF SAND

Clepsydra's second album finds them playing in a heavily Marillion-influenced style, with competent performances and songwriting undermined slightly by rather patchy sound quality. I could take or leave Aluisio Maggini's somewhat cliched and overwrought vocals, but Philip Hubert does a great job on the keyboards, showing a level of skill and accomplishment comparable to Marillion's Mark Kelly or the ubiquitous Clive Nolan; however, his performance here is sabotaged just a little by rather thin sound quality which doesn't bring out the best in the music. Pendragon fans will be interested to know that Nick Barret has a cameo on Moonshine of Heights.