Terry's Reviews
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Music Reviews: |
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Jon Jenkins
Beyond City Light Spotted Peccary 2005 |
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| Huge, haunting and
exquisite would best describe Beyond City Light. Jon Jenkins composes from the
soul with emotionally charged soundscape that will envelope you. I am inspired and moved
by his arrangement of music. Jenkins plays in a way that is meant to get you captured in the overall design. Jenkins does this with well-placed notes balanced between a huge low sound register and hanging aural highlights brining fourth the key points of each track. Jenkins has the knack of adding piano notes at just the right time or brining in booming percussion and bass. He has a musicality that could only come from someone who honestly feels the music. "The Calling" has a slow, purposeful build that will pay off big time within the later tracks on the album. "Zzyzx Road" takes the main theme established in the first track and pushes it into a passionate groove of gentle keyboard notes, rotating undertow of low notes and bashing percussion. This mix of hi & low mixed with hard and soft is wonderfully vibrant. "Through City Light" plays like a soundtrack of driving through a city. The Tangerine Dream like rhythm easily creates the feel of movement, while the blurred notes under and over the rhythm play like the things you see passing by. Mystery is explored within "Secrets of the Virgin." The solo female voice really soars in this track and helps attain the meaning of the song. Jenkins really makes a point when he has the loud crashing percussion and voice singing out with haunting guitar. Part of the ambience of "Legacy" reminded me of Thomas Newmans film composition but Jon Jenkins adds his undeniable percussion. "Deep Sleep and Dying Embers" is very appropriate title for the sixth track. The mellow ambience will cuddle up to you like your favorite blanket and put you at ease. A tiny part of this cue reminded me of THE MOTHMAN PROPHECIES, one of my all-time favorite film scores. Native American instrumentation pours out of "The Source" like water in a rainstorm. Flutes scream out in agony while layers of piano and keyboard fill the remaining space. I couldnt help but think of a big stormy sky full of cloud formations while listening to "Sky of Surrender." The song is not threatening but serene with waves of ambience rolling over and over. "Through Different Eyes" is poignant and one of the best tracks Jon Jenkins has ever recorded. The ninth track is a sensational mix of piano, multi level keyboard blended with a sensuous female voice. "Forever" soothes for seven and a half minutes. It is an excellent last track to wrap up one of the best albums of 2005. "Beyond City Light" is an hour and three-minute audio journey that anyone would love to take. I cant help but keep visiting the peaceful, stimulating world Jon Jenkins has created. |
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