Robert Drake

What day is it?

  1. The House
  2. Weeds
  3. The statue
  4. Rainy
  5. Spiders
  6. The drawing
  7. Plates
  8. Going somewhere
  9. The sawblade
  10. Death Valley
  11. The 13th animal
  12. Precarious Glimmering
  13. The Cemetery Trees
  14. Good Evening
A good friend of mine who happens to be the keyboardist in my new band dropped by one day with a CD in his hand. He casually handed it to me and I scanned the cover and liner notes. "Hmmm" I thought to myself "this should be interesting." Seeing as Robert Drake is involved with some of the best music happening right now, I figured it had to be pretty good. Now mind you, there are no saxophones on this album. Not even a woodwind instrument. Not even anything remotely LIKE a saxophone. So why am I writing this? Well, here's the rest of the story... I casually inserted the CD into the player (Scott grinning devilishly beside me) and hear a crumpled, distorted acoustic guitar. Hmm. Suddenly the sound opened up and I was shocked by the shear presence of the music. The next 42 minutes and 48 seconds were simply unbelieveable. As a reviewer, it is difficult to accurately describe the music on this CD. There are obviously many influences, ranging from blues to bluegrass to way out art rock like Art Bears and Henry Cow. Robert Drake's voice has been compared many times to Jon Anderson, and this may be a fair comparison as there are similarities between the timbre of their voices. Some have taken the comparison a step further and compared this music to YES. This comparison seems far afield to me. Drake (and many other prog rock musicians) inevitably share that influence, but this amazing music sounds nothing like YES. In fact this music is uniquely Drake's. You would be hard pressed to find an album like this anywhere else.

 Part of the magic of this album lies in the subtleties of the production. After many times listening through this album, I still find new sounds and effects which weave seemlessly through the sonic texture. Since Drake plays everything from drums to guitar on this album, there is a constant mix of acoustic and electric instruments. All instrumentalists will be envious of the quality of the recorded sounds he achieves here. Drake is a master engineer and producer, and that is painstakingly evident on this recording. Most of the songs on this album have a vocal element which is again flawlessly captured, even with some incredibly close and complex harmonies.

Production elements aside, this album is just great music. Songs on this album are complex, but not in a pretentious or non-accessible way. On the contrary, one could listen to the entire album and not even realize how intricate the compositional and instrumental elements really are. Drake's melodies, lyrics and musicianship spawn unusual and twisting soundscapes which evoke intense emotional response and draw the listener deeply into the music. None of the unusual aspects of this CD seem for the sake of oddity. As a listener you feel like you are looking deeply into the essence of who Robert Drake is as a musician and composer. Everything in this collection of songs is there because it HAS to be. Perhaps this one element is what compelled me more than anything to share this hidden treasure I have found. Not often do I encourage others to obtain a CD as a "must have" part of their collection, but in this case I most certainly do. It seems like everyone who hears this CD is so taken with it that they want a copy for themselves anyway.

"What day is it" is only available directly from Bob Drake.

 Jason DuMars