Released on the first day of this new year, an album has not made a stir in the progressive sphere: it is 'False Readings' by keyboardist, drummer and singer 'Mark Murdock' who gravitates in the musical world of progressive and who records albums under his name but who also has another project in parallel, 'Cymbalic Encounters' whose latest album 'Overexposure' was released in September 2022. Surrounded by a large number of artists, including 'Fernando Perdomo' and a good part of the group 'Nektar', his latest baby follows the first two solo albums, 'The Phoenix Has Risen' in 2020 and 'Visitors from Another Planet' in 2021, and offers us 10 compositions which are quite direct and which mix classic pop and rock with a good dose of progressive, all taking us back to the years 70/80 with in particular formations like 'Yes' or 'Genesis' for the progressive side and for the more direct side, groups like 'Toto' or 'The Alan Parsons Project'. The constructions highlight a good alternation between parts sung by 'Tim Pepper' (from the very good group 'The ID' in which 'Mark Murdock' was drummer), and sought-after instrumental sections, as evidenced by the latest track 'Ending World Overture' which is fully instrumental. Note that the whole album has been the subject of videos on his youtube page and you can see them here.
In summary, even if the style is quite linear on all the compositions, 'Mark Murdock' gratifies us with a very good album interpreted by the hands of masters by talented artists and 'False Readings' should appeal to an entire public having been raised on the bottles of the major progressive bands of the 70s/80s... | |
