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Colin Bass - Outcast Of The Islands

Artist:	Colin Bass
Title:	Outcast Of The Islands
Label:	Kartini KART 2
Length(s):	63 minutes
Year(s) of release:	1999
Month of review:	01/1999

Line up

Colin Bass - vocals, bass, keyboards
Andy Latimer - guitars
Dave Stewart - drums
Zbyszek Florek - keyboards
Marcin Blaszczyk - keyboards
Maciek Meller - guitars
Szymon Brzezinski - guitars
and guests:
Wojtek Karolak, Jacek Piskorz, Jacek Zasada, Tatiana Kauczor,
Emilia Derkowska and the Poznan Gospel Quintet.

Tracks

1)	Macassar	6.16
2)	As Far As I Can See	6.17
3)	First Quartet	1.44
4)	Goodbye To Albion	7.11
5)	The Straits Of Malacca	4.41
6)	Aissa	2.43
7)	Denpasar Moon	4.20
8)	Second Quartet	0.31
9)	No Way Back	6.16
10)	Holding Out My Hand	6.22
11)	The Outcast	3.27
12)	Burning Bridges	4.52
13)	Reap What You See	6.19
14)	Trying To Get You	2.12

Summary

Featuring a number of members of Quidam and Abraxas this is the bassplayer/singer of Camel, playing with the Camel man himself and the drummer of the Harbour of Tears tour, Dave Stewart. In case you wondered: this is neither the Dave Stewart of the Eurythmics, nor the one of all those Cantebury albums I know you all love to death. A few months before I got this disc I already had seen it being sold by some Polish guys. I'm happy the album has also gone over to a label in Berlin, making it for instance possible to obtain a review copy (or a bought one) of this disc. As you might have noticed Polish discs are hard to come by.

The music

The first song Macassar is a longish instrumental. It combines some kind of moody jazzrock with percussive sounds and some more soundscape like sounds in the back. Then the ever popular Hammond sets in and the guitar sound becomes bluesy. Later on the keyboards dominate again and in this way we are shifting from mood to mood and melody to melody. On the whole a very melodic and varied song in which one can hear the influence of playing that two humped desert animal. The song ends on an optimistic note. As Far As I Can See is almost a lullabye, with soft keys and acoustic accompaniment and a softly weeping guitar. Some will feel this song to be too sweet, but I think it works. After the First Quartet played by members of the Poznan Philharmonic Orchestra we come to Goodbye To Albion, the longest track on the album. We are again close to singer/songerwriter here with some folk tendencies. A bit uneventful, but the melody of the chorus is very nice. Straits Of Malacca is again something entirely different. After a moody opening, we come to more open water with some heavy guitars. A noisy return to Macassar you might say. Aissa is a bass riddled track with the ever beautiful fretless bass, yielding its moody sound and eerie e-bow guitar in the background, travelling from ear to ear. Denpasar Moon is a track by Sabah Habas Mustapha, the other Colin Bass for when he played in the 3 Mustaphas 3. In atmosphere the song reminds me of Chris Isaaks Blue Hotel, also because of the sliding sound to the guitar. A sultry track. After the short Second Quartet we move right into the powerful No Way Back. Strangely enough Latimer does not play the guitar here. One of the more progressive tracks this with a great vocal melody and prominent guitar play. Holding Out My Hand is a moody track with a moody guitar and moody vocals. The song is a bit ponderous with many dark sounds and a rather short vocal part, but also quite a lot of soloing on the keyboards. The end of the song is an extensive solo by Latimer, that ends rather abruptly. I'm not sure whether the next one is called Outcast or The Outcast, since the back of the CD and the booklet are of differing opinions. This track is the last we will hear of the member of the Poznan Philhamornic Orchestra. The song, like the quartets, sounds like what they are: classical string pieces and all a bit moody and this last one even a bit threatening. Quite good. Burning Bridges is a plodding song with washes of keyboard and guitars like approaching thunder in the background. A loose sounding track with especially well phrased lyrics. Reap What You Sew opens with strings and then a whining guitar making the music sound akin to country. The warm organ sound helps a lot, but this is I feel the weakest track on the album. Trying To Get To You closes the album in the tropics with Colin doing everything and all kinds of insects providing the background. I do wonder why the lyrics were omitted to this typical singer/songwriter song.

Conclusion

Not a very "progressive" effort, but it does include lots of pleasant music, a real pleasure for the ear. The craftmanship of the writer and the players is beyond any doubt and although it is not filled to the brim with breaks and tempo changes, it is certainly worth a listen. References can be made to Damian Wilsons Cosmas (but more varied and more progressive), to Camel (less progressive, but more varied) and Landmarq (but less progressive sounding). Yet I feel lovers of the mentioned bands can also find a place in their hearts for this sometimes hopeful, sometimes brooding music.