Short Reviews [Mark Truey Trueack - 2025 - "Journey's Groove. An Adventure In Life"]

Mark Trueack is well-known for being co-founder of both Unitopia and United Progressive Fraternity (UPF), and I have enjoyed their albums, so was looking forward to hearing his new solo album. Apparently, he has signed with OOB for three albums, and this is the first. As one may be able to tell from the title, this is a fairly autobiographical work which commences with Mark providing some narration, and then we hear about the go-kart made from an ironing board for him by his father, “Go Kart”. We get a clip from the moon landing in “One Small Step for Man”, as anyone who was old enough to understand what was going on in 1969 was glued to the TV or radio, I know I was, and I was only six! Lyrically Mark covers many aspects which were important in his life, which makes this album very personal, and that is not always a good thing. Also, while I have enjoyed his work with Unitopia and UPF, this is very much not a progressive album and instead is focussed on jazz, funk, world music, and a groove. It makes me think of music which was being released just after the disco craze in the late Seventies, but there is a lack of depth, and I have found this a very difficult album to enjoy. I am sure that part of that is I generally do not listen to this style of music for pleasure, and while Mark is a fine musician, nothing can change the fact that there are too few guitars, too much brass and I feel that in the concentration on the lyrics and telling the story there has not been so much focus on the accompaniment. There will be plenty of people who do enjoy this, but if you are coming to this expecting a continuation of Mark’s work with UPF then please be aware that this is very different indeed.