Reviewed by Matthew Cordle

Myke provides a lot of interesting information in the accompanying booklet on the backstory to this album, how he got to the point in his life where he wrote the music, the overall concept of the album and the meaning behind each track. He states that "No Worry, No Sorrow" is not some glib positive thinking self-help idea, but is centred around the experience of giving everything over to God in hard times, based on 1 Peter 5:7, "Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you." Unusually for the style, this is an instrumental album and Myke explains about the time it took to get to the point where he could just enjoy making music "without the burden of having to write words I wasn't happy with, or sing melodies I couldn't hit." Electric guitar riffs largely form the foundation of most tracks, with drums and other parts programmed by Myke with his Akai MPK-series controller. The overall style is definitely on the rockier side of rock/pop and Myke states his influences as Relient K and Children 18:3. "C183" is specifically a tribute to the latter, although most tracks are considerably less raucous than most of Children 18:3's material. The closing track is the only one with a vocal on it, a version of the hymn "Nothing But The Blood Of Jesus". Myke's vocal intonation is somewhat variable, so maybe it's not such a bad thing that there are no vocals on the other nine tracks. Whilst there are sonic improvements that could be made (nasty synth brass sound being one) and some of the drum programming is a touch wooden, the fact that the whole record was tracked in Myke's bedroom shows what can be achieved with a combination of ability, will and persistence. However, despite Myke's explanation of why he recorded an instrumental album, I have to say that pretty much every track sounds like it's the backing-track version of a song crying out for a vocal.

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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