Finneus Gauge |
| Finneus Gauge is Scott McGill on Guitars and Micro Jammer, John Buzby on Drums and Backing Vocals, Chris Eike on Basses, Laura Martin on Lead Vocals and Chris Buzby on Keyboards. The tracks are 'More Once More', 'King Of The Chord Change', 'Press The Flesh', 'Desire', 'Doogins (the Evil Spawn)', 'Customer Service', 'A Mess Of Finesse', 'Sidewalk Sale', 'Calling Card', 'Salvation', 'Abandon', 'Finding The Strength'. 'More Once More', is the debut album from the American Prog/jazz-rock band Finneus Gauge. The opening track and title track is 'More Once More', this track reminds me so much of Gentle Giant, alright the vocals are now by a woman namely Laura Martin who has an excellent voice and fits in with this type of music just superbly. The harmonies are very similar and up to now I have not heard or heard of any band who have created anything similar to the Gentle Giant sound. But Finneus Gauge on this first track have got very close to it indeed. Now I not saying Finneus Gauge have copied a Gentle Giant track, but they have reproduced a very similar style of track as th that of Gentle Giant. Great harmonies, complex rhythm's and song structure. This track may be slighly more jazz influenced, but I'm sure any Gentle Giant fan or anyone who has heard Gentle Giant's music, will know what I mean. The next track is 'King Of The Chord Change', which is a nice track, but still quite a complex song. It is a lot more mellow than the previous track, nice vocals, there's a short, but great guitar solo in the middle followed by a little funky bass, then back to the vocals. Track three 'Press The Flesh' starts with handclapping intro beat then quickly followed by a rock guitar riff. Laura them comes in with some fairly soft vocals, but she gradually builds up to more powerful vocals bringing the song to a climax then brings them back down to the soft vocals. Repeating this a few times within the song. The music is quite complex in the background with some great guitar, keyboards and the drum ryhthm constantly changing. Lots of changes in mood and direction and tempo 'Desire', is a love song, a fairly quiet track with keyboards and drums in the background of the vocals. In the middle there is a great guitar solo followed by a great keyboard solo. 'Doogins (the Evil Spawn)' is a superb instrumental. More in the vein of Bruford this one. The whole band (except for Laura) are in full flight from start to finish. Again quite complex, with lots of intricate guitar and keyboards. Track six 'Customer Service', another track that is similar in a way to Gentle Giant. This track however has some funky keyboard sounds, there are quite a few vocals harmonies. 'A Mess Of Finesse', Another complex song with subtle changes in tempo and mood. Scott's guitar work is superb and some of his playing is incredibly fast. Next is 'Sidewalk Sale', is another instrumental. The tempo is quite slow and the music more subtle than on previous tracks. Track nine is 'Calling Card', starts with about two minutes of atmospheric guitar, this reminds me a lot of John McLaughlins guitar work with The Mahavishnu Orchestra. Then the whole band comes in. Scott's guitar sound is a bit more edgy on this track and the tempo is quite fast. Chris also plays some great keyboards. Next is 'Salvation', a high tempo track with some great keyboards from Chris similar in a way to Emerson, Chris Eike's bass has quite a funky rhythm to it. Laura's vocals are just superb. There's quite a few changes in direction and tempo and there's a few Gentle Giant type vocal harmonies. 'Abandon', is virtually an acoustic track with Laura's vocals weaving around Chris's keyboards. A very mellow track. And the final track is 'Finding The Strength', starts with some great guitar from Scott. Laura vocals are fairly quiet on this track. But again there are some great vocal harmonies. Again there are lots of changes in direction and mood. More Once More is a Superb album and fans of Bruford, Brand X, and Jazz-Rock, this is an album for you. Although I would still recommend anyone to have a listen. You can listen to some clips by going to their website. http://ghostland.com/finneus.html More Once More is released by train recORDS. Contact Information : Inverse Entertainment/Finneus Gauge. c/o Chris Buzby., P.O.Box 1240., Langhorne.,PA 19047. Tel : (215) 576 - 3993 Email : CBBkeys@aol.com or finneus-gauge@juno.com |