BELVEDERE MOUNTAIN EXPRESS "A Vow in the Blue Belltower"
Pigeonhouse CD

Do the instruments define a stylistic adherence? It's a risky statement, but quite likely to be confirmed in case of synthesiser music - is there anything new you could do in the relaxation music, el-music, new age, pop ?... Of course, there are a lot of possibilities but the element of surprise seems to be beyond keyboards. Therefore, receiving "A Vow in the Blue Belltower", a debut album from Howard Goodman's project from London, I had a certain idea on what I was going to hear before I put the disc in my CD player. And I wasn't much wrong indeed, Belvedere Mountain Express' music is based almost entirely on keyboards although some elements of sampling and field recordings are incorporated into it; however, they do not influence the character of the material much. Luckily, for me and the artist, there are no attempts to make music orchestral as it often happens. Keyboards sound as keyboards and they do not imitate anything more than really they are. Music has its very tender course, sometimes it's 'el-music' feel as we know it, sometimes gloomier moments, referring to gothic electro, where the beats used can be associated with that trancey tradition of post-rock so well known (I guess) to Howard. A great flexibility in those sound stories, proficient realization, without a useless trace of bombast, plus a few good ideas I have found in there - they're indisputably good features of "A Vow.". And last but not least, you should pay your attention to it for the beautiful voice of Vicki Giblin, who appears in four tracks. It diversifies the music successfully, and is just great! Another record to have a good time with...

[krzysztof sadza]