Manning
is of course multi-instrumentalist, Guy
Manning, whose
previous album The
Ragged Curtain more than impressed us when we reviewed it a
couple of years ago.
The
View From My Window
was released back in late 2003 and features Guy
on, well, almost everything except saxophone (Laura
Fowles), flute,
fiddle, cello and whistles (the renowned Tim Moon).
That said, Guy
is also ‘aided and abetted’ in the execution of his compositions on
this album by Rick Ashton
(bass), Gareth
Harwood
(electric guitars), Andy
Tillison
(keyboards, drums), Pav
Chana
(percussion) and Hugh
Whitaker (drums
percussion).
The
first of the six tracks has a similar but slightly faster tempo to Chris
Rea’s On
The Beach and is
consequently very catchy and memorable.
Tempo and elements of the melody apart, Guy’s
distinctive vocal and arrangements incorporating ‘growling’ organ,
soundbank orchestration, and some seriously excellent guitar and
saxophone, smack of Tull
to a degree.
I know that Guy
will be sick of being compared with Ian
Anderson but his
vocal, compositional and lyrical style is incredibly akin to that of the
legendary Tull
front man, shrieking quality and inventiveness, things this album are full
of. The beginning and end of
the title track, The View From My Window, invokes momentary
thoughts of the very start and end of Tull’s
A Passion Play although the song is actually quite different, a
gentle view on life one often gets when in a pensive mood gazing at
nothing in particular.
The Rut has
to be a firm favourite for the set list when Manning
give their (I use the collective term deliberately) all too rare live
performances. The keyboard
work on this largely instrumental piece is a real treat, and the use of
orchestrated sounds and bass and percussion arrangement is truly inspired.
The addition of cello in After The (Tears In The) Rain
provides contrast to Guy’s
gentle acoustic guitar, and I am fearful of mentioning it again but this
is a great song that would be something I can imagine Ian Anderson
would be proud of.
A change in tempo and style follows with Blue Girl, which brings Sadé
and Beverly
Craven to mind
given the jazzy feel and saxophone punctuation.
Again, Guy
uses a synthesised ‘strings’ sound not far into the track though this
time it is reminiscent of Caravan
(Cunning Stunts album and the odd earlier Caravan tune).
Nice.
Final track is Suite: Dreams, a work seamlessly divided into six
movements encompassing lounge jazz (Dreamian Rhapsody), a seriously
(and I mean seriously) good prog instrumental (On The Carousel), a
little ditty touching on folk and prog (In Slumbers), a
semi-classical flute-heavy instrumental (A Visit To The Sandman),
an amazing Passion
Play style
instrumental to die for (REM), closing or ‘awakening’ with a
typical Manning
flourish (From Slumbers). Never
has twenty minutes, the length of this track, seemed so short.
If The View From My Window happened to be by Jethro
Tull it would,
justifiably, sell thousands of copies.
Unfortunately, Manning
is not as widely known as Tull
so only those in the know will pick up a copy.
Be one of those lucky ones because Manning is just
too good to overlook.
Jem Jedrzejewski
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