While recently talking with Robert Reed, I joked with him about him being due to experiment with dance and trance beats like Mike Oldfield. I should have taken heed of his wry laugh at the time. I have followed Robert's musical journey since becoming enchanted with Cyan at an early age, and having The Fyreworks album he appeared on, being one of my all time top ten records.
I have dabbled with Magenta over the years, but until recently not really invested any time in Rob's other projects; something I am currently putting right. So when the opportunity to review another of Robert's projects arose, I jumped at the chance to give Chimpan A a listen, and boy, was I in for a surprise.
What was waiting for me was not the classic prog of Magenta, or the subtleties associated with many of Robert's other works, but dance like electronic rhythms, drum machine beats and a whole lot more which I could not take in on the initial listen.
I have probably invested more time in listening to The Empathy Machine than any other album of which I have written a review for, and the problem is I am still struggling to pigeon hole what Chimpan A have produced. This is a record which really defies having a label attached. If all was fair within the music industry, then The Empathy Machine is the type of album which should be included in the Mercury Prize Award. But, as most people who read these reviews already know, a snowball has more chance of surviving in hell than this happening.
Robert is accompanied on this musical journey by Steve Balsamo , another amazing Welsh talent who, before playing this CD, I had never heard of. Well, Steve has quite a long musical pedigree, one highlight, and probably the most high profile, is playing the lead in Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber's Jesus Christ Superstar rock opera. If a singer can recreate Ian Gillan 's original vinyl interpretation of the role, then you can be assured they are a damn fine vocalist.
