Short Reviews [Murky Red - 2025 - "Long Time No See"]

They're not kidding with this album title as it has been ten years since their second album, 'No Pocus Without Hocus', but part of that reason is the move from being a live act to a studio project by multi-instrumentalist and singer Stef Flaming with a few guests here and there. I still love the way they were described to me at the time of that release, "If their musical style was a human life form, it would be the love child of Deep Floyd, The Black Doors, and Led Sabbath. Slayer and Monty Python were the nannies." Yes, there is a deliberate sense of humour, which also comes through in the cover. Talking of covers, there is one on this album, namely The Doors' "Riders on the Storm", but it fits in perfectly with the rest of the album which shows just how much they have been inspired by that group, and just how psychedelic their own originals are. One of the most poignant of these is "The Maestro's Shadow", sung by Liz Tapia (Dark Beauty), which is a tribute to the much-missed Colin Tench who had a major positive impact on the band in their early days. The album is steeped in the late Sixties/early Seventies, and has been produced in such a manner to exacerbate that feeling and not over-sanitise or polish it too much - I note it has been mastered by Ian Beabout who is certainly making a great name for himself in production circles, working on many impressive releases. This is a very accessible album, which is serious but also not taking itself too seriously, the result being something which is meant to be played and to be enjoyed and not studied too deeply. It is music for pleasure, and anyone who likes the style of music being portrayed here will certainly agree this is the case.