Reviewed by Jonathan Day

Marc Catley walked into the Cross Rhythms Festival catering tent, smiled ingenuously at the lady selling the tea and began to unload his immense merchandise bag... Marc, of course, is known for his intelligent acoustic based (dare I say it?) New Age or instrumen­tal music on 'The Off The End Off The Pier Show' which is currently making inroads into both secular and European markets and for his gently biting, subtly ascerbic satirical songs, as on his recent and entirely excellent 'Make The Tea'. This album is however a CD reissue of much of his and Geoff's back catalogue. Marc's songs feature a voice which is the perfect vehi­cle for 'Make The Tea' but which is less confident and ultimately un-satisfying to this listener. Lyrically the songs are a delight. Musically, Marc's songs are as intelligently arranged and impeccably performed as ever. And so to Geoff's half. Geoff Mann walked into a bar. Ouch, it was a metal bar. Geoff, formerly with prog rockers Twelfth Night and doyen of Reading Fes­tival and the Marquee, has a very distinctive vocal not to everyone's taste. But I like it. His lyrics leap out and poke you in the eye. This is an experimental album, ranging from folk songs, "All Along The Way", to weird a cappella; "One Of The Green Things" is reminiscent of Todd Rundgren's "Born To Synthesize". As with any such album, particularly when it runs to 75 minutes, there are gems and base earth here, but the gems make it more than worthwile. A million miles from 'Praise Him On The Jews Harp Vol. 27'

The opinions expressed in this article are not necessarily those held by Cross Rhythms. Any expressed views were accurate at the time of publishing but may or may not reflect the views of the individuals concerned at a later date.

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