Ways In Waves - Matters To Ash

 

This is essentially an Indie site, but quite a few of you know of my love of Prog and where I think it is appropriate and may fit here, I add it in here. Edmonton, Alberta's Ways In Waves are essentially a one man Project with the aid of Drummer, Joel Jescke and some great Backing Vocalists.

That one man is Brian Raine and what a musical virtuoso he is. At its heart, the album is Modern Prog, Neo Prog maybe and it is very melodic at times and sounds as close as I've heard to my beloved, The Mommyheads.

Raine's vocals is very close to Mommyheads land as are some of the arrangements, particularly the more poppy and angular moments. That vocal can also sound a little like a mellow Jon Anderson. This is most relevant when Matters To Ash gets more Classic Prog.

That Classic Prog adventures are spot on, time signature and changes of direction, but the album can also be incredibly mellow on songs such as Enough Of Nothing. Raine can also do Electronic when he gets close to the likes of 80s stalwarts such as a deeper Howard Jones.

The closer, Love Enough, is part Pop Rock, part Eastern, completely out of context with what has gone before and adds great Sax from John Sweenie. But it is Who In War that best encompasses all the strengths of Ways In Waves when Raine is at his most melodic.

You can listen to and buy the album here. You can find out more about Ways In Waves here.

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