Reviewed by Philip Croft

Considering that Steve first worked professionally as a drummer way back in the '60s playing for artists like Tom Jones and the Walker Brothers (and somewhat later Duran Duran) it comes as a surprise that this is his first solo release. To describe this album as experimental is probably just scratching the surface. When you realise that Steve learnt to drum by beating biscuit tins with knives and moved on to hitting 50 gallon drums with sticks then you begin to get some idea of his sense of conventionality! Imagine if you will a trippy instrumental Iona with some African, Chinese and Middle Eastern rhythms and instruments thrown in and you are beginning to get close. My wife hated this and thought it ranked one out of ten. As I grew up in the '70s listening to the prog rock of the time I loved it. But this is that sort of album - you'll either love it or hate it but you won't be indifferent. Yes it is self-indulgent in places, at times it is overly arty and pretentious - and of course in places the sleevenotes barely seem to be written in English - but given the plethora of middle of the road, safe, mass produced Christian CDs out there this is a genuine breath of fresh air and in my opinion the Christian music scene would be better off if we had a few more Steve Urwins who simply don't care for convention or fashion.

The opinions expressed in this article are not necessarily those held by Cross Rhythms. Any expressed views were accurate at the time of publishing but may or may not reflect the views of the individuals concerned at a later date.

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