It is difficult to convey the surge of emotion and excitement that floods your body when you get a CD from a band whose work you've previously heard, liked, relatively dismissed, then put it on the player and, within the first 2 minutes, the lightning bolt of jaw-dropping wonderment, awe, delight and amazement, hits you like a rocket from head to foot.
Welcome to the incredible new world of music that is Call To Mind......
I could use all the superlatives in my arsenal and even that would not convey the extraordinary strength, power, depth and beauty that is the opening track, “A9”. Armed with a production that would make many zillion dollar bands envious, the band have created a track that sits so outside of everything else that's around today, it's almost like discovering a new life-form. It opens with gently chiming guitars, a distant sustained guitar note that gathers strength, and then in comes this slowly rolling, bass end piano and, of all things, a singer with as high register a voice as you'll have heard since the heady days of Jimmy Somerville, only here we're talking Sigur Ros not Bronski Beat. He sings the verse so beautifully, it's the voice of an angel. A gentle tapping of cymbals is heard as the backing flows and the singer is suddenly multi-tracked into the cosmos before the lone voice then climbs slightly higher, as, meanwhile, the drums have rolled in to provide a chunky foundation as bass underpins the mix of strength and fragility that's happening on top. This is songwriting and arranging taken to a whole new level. Now we move back to the verse as the band rolls forward, the throb of the piano, the ringing guitars in the distance, all moving towards the multi-tracked magnificence and the drums-driven beauty of the lead singer's verse. A brief respite for a cascading piano lead over the gently clattering drums, heralds the arrival of rthe whole band to take the intensity way up high as the wordless vocals of the angel add the most gorgeous textures to the heady mix of pianos, guitars, bass, and drums, this huge slow motion rocket ship of sound taking to the skies as the gates of heaven welcome it with open arms. It is just awesome!! As if to prove that they really are out in their own world, “All The Happiness In My Head” continues the feel and sound, this time a more “traditional” song structure, wrapped in an emotionally stirring magnificence of huge-sounding piano, drums, bass and guitars, the high register lead vocal reaching greater heights as the song surges forward in this beautiful blue tidal wave of sunny sound, the anthem of heaven itself, and a thing of great joy, full of passion, ending with a piano-led whisper. “Jasione” is more “out there” as a song that's more like a huge sound painting ensues, the high lead vocal, multi-tracked a fair bit of the time for added harmonic depth and texture, set against rolling, almost military drums, that amazingly resonant, heartfelt, deep bass roll of the piano, a panorama of texture from the vocals, keys and guitars, almost distant bass but always there and textural guitar surge that glues it all together at the end. “Running With Scissors” starts like a cross between Sigur Ros, Pink Floyd and Robert Wyatt, as one amazing song just exists – it starts, it flows, it's got a seemingly infinite depth to the vocals, shimmering, ringing guitars, rolling piano, sky-high keys and guitars, a vocal presence that's almost religious in its mix of angelic fragility and burning intensity. Then the whole thing starts to burn as the band lift you to another place you never knew existed via this absolutely spine-tingling world of sound as the music sends shivers of delight down your spine and immerses you in a musical world the likes of which you've rarely experienced before. The CD ends with “I Have A Photograph”, starting with almost amorphous guitar chords that shimmer and resonate like some giant factory machine, and this huge wall of sound continues, added to by textural keys and bass, distant wordless vocal, as the mighty mass of music sets your nerve ends on fire at the same time as mesmerising you with a flowing density that is taut to the point of breaking. Then, from the morass, comes a lead vocal that intones just one repeated line as the whole thing fades, as strangely leaving the CD as the band magnificently began it, but making absolute perfect sense.
I don't say this lightly when I tell you that this is a work of genius that you really have to hear, no matter what style of modern music you're into.