Wow, now you're hurting me, 3 out of 10 for Sunstruck. I love that album, especially Phoebus' Dream, which is i.m.o. one of the best things Kit has done. Oké, maybe the tracks Mirage and Canopy are a bit too ambient, but some of the others have great moments.
Lately I bought a cheap copy of Wet Dark And Low, which is nice and deserves a closer listen. Of course I've got the LP Labyrinth, which contains strong tracks that have also links to his HTM- and Camel-days; a while ago I bought the compilation-album Early Solo Works 1980-82, which contains the full Labyrinth and some songs from the weak Frames Of Mind. I also have In Time, the one he did with Coco Roussel. There's a funny story with that one. One night a HTM-friend visited me and after a couple of beers I put the In Time-LP on my pick-up. But in stead of 33 I put the speed on 45 and guess what: a lot of tracks just sounded like the up-tempo work of Happy The Man!! (I can't do that with my CD-version though).

Im sorry for hurting you steamingears, that was not my intention to hurt anyone for that matter. But my expectations of that cd was very or maybe to high when i bought it i guess as it seems to be a favourite among most Kit´s fans. But i do think that Beauty Drifting is Kit´s best work so far, what do you think of B D?

Cheers

Of course I was joking around a bit; opinions on music are too personal to get hurt.
About Beauty Drifting I have to be honest: I haven't heard it (yet). Because I believe Kit did his best work with HTM I'm not into trying to get all of his solo-work, but who knows, maybe BD will come one day; at least it has a nice title...

I was joking "a bit" to, you know. Anyway,here is the tune Melrose Cavern from the cd Beauty Drifting performed live by Kit Watkins. And yes, the cd title does really describe the music in a perfect way as you may notice.

mp3 for download artists.iuma.com/site-bin/mp3gen/71535/IUMA/Bands/Kit_Watkins/audio/Kit_Watkins_-_Melrose_Cavern_live.mp3

streaming mp3
artists.iuma.com/site-bin/streammp3.m3u?245053

streaming real audio
artists.iuma.com/site-bin/ramgen.ram?aid=71535&sid=245053

Hope you like it...

Thanks for the links. I've listened to Melrose Cavem; it's a beautiful tune, but I fear it's a kind of music that can't hold my attention too long. Like I said: I loved Kit work with HTM, especially his rhythmic stuff. Lucky for us: David R. is a great interpretator of his music...

Thats true, anyway, i posted the following about Kit at the news section last week:

Was checking Kit´s site today and saw the following information at the "News" page.

New CD "Flying Petals" being finished -- an upbeat mix of world-fusion and progressive music, with material written between 1995 and 2000.

Maybe something for the Happy the Fans to check out, dont know any release date of it, but if someone here does, please inform. Thanks!

Hello all, i pasted this text from Kit Watkins homepage:

Flying Petals 2004 — Progressive world-fusion.... new release for 2004.... this is NOT an ambient CD.... play it LOUD.... 77 minutes of beat music written and recorded from 1995-2004.

Link: kitwatkins.com/discog/flying.htm

Signals In: is a dreamy and to me a progressive tune, but with a soft drum´n´bass drum loop insted of ordinary drums, cool. It seems like Kit wants to turn the listeners into a certain state of mind with his music, almost hypnotising. I do like this!

Call of the Z'Antuu: Great moogy feeling here. Nice solo!

Flying petals: Only 30 sec, I wanna hear more!!!!!!!!!!!

Bowels of the Agency (Bush lied mix): Here is a side of Kit´s that i never heard before. Comedy! Even thou there is a serious side behind it, but to me this is dark parodic comedy. I want to hear more. I am going to buy the new Kit Watkins cd "Flying Petals" thats for shure!

What do you think of the new samples?

OOOH, "look wot you dun". You know how impulsive I am I've ordered that one even without listening to the samples (I'll keep my judgement untill I've heard the CD). When I saw David Torn participated I knew I had to have it....

PS "Look wot you dun" was my first single ever. In fact I wanted to have Slade's Coz I love you (great violin-solo), but that one was out of the hitparade, so they gave me this one for my 12th bithday, almost 32 years ago...

...i think that youre going to like it alot. I am looking forward for a Steaming review of Flying Petals.

I was never into Slade´s music...my favourites where Sweet at the time. Their song Sweet F.A from the Sweet funny adams album is still a really good tune after all these years.

I will order the new Kit cd at a local cd store in Stockholm...very soon.

I have all the Kit Watkins solo stuff. All are worth having, although i'm not so keen on the ambient stuff like Thought Tones. Beauty Drifting is an excellent cd of quieter pieces but cannot really be compared to a varied cd like Sunstruck. Sunstruck is for me, one of his best alongside In Time, Labyrinth & Azure. Flying Petals is also a welcome addition to his catalogue and his first rock mainstream (if you can call it that) cd for some time.

Maybe i heard the Sunstruck cd to late, what i mean is that if i bought it when it was released it may have sounded more fresh than in the year 2001, when i heard it the first time, who knows?!

Hopefully we will get a review of the Flying Petals cd from steamingears very soon, Kit´s tune Bowels of the Agency (Bush lied mix) made me very curious. It reminded me of an old (the 80´s) Zappa song from the album The mothers of prevention.

It´s a shame that i havent bought the Beauty Drifting yet, but its hard to get here in Sweden. Lazy

Im into the "short story" movie business, writing scripts and doing the camerawork and digital editing. All i can say is that Kit´s music suits movies just perfect...i believe he would earn some big money in the movie or television businnes, dont you think?

Please steamingears, give us a review of Flying Petals!

;D

Wooops... Seems I have to work a bit harder

Well, I've got the CD two weeks now, but due to a lot of other new CD's I bought/got to review I haven't been able to write a review. But my co-ordinator for the magazine I write for (iO Pages, see: www.net4u.nl/io/ ) asked me today to write that review too, so I guess I can't escape... Please, be patient; it won't take as long as The Muse ....

Looking forward for the review! ;D

My favorite Kit Watkins album is Labyrinth, followed by In Time. I didn't care for the ambient stuff either (sorry to say), and I lost touch with his musical output after Azure. I really wish he'd get back to his progressive roots. I'll have to check out the new release to see if it's more to my liking. All this is not to slam Kit either...he's still in my top 5 of all time favorite keyboardists.

I wish he would go back making prog to, the Flying Petals CD is a great start I believe. What I do miss the most with Kit is his highly skilled fast fluid keyboard solos with a "feel" of a master ( well, he is the master to me ;D ) . Those solos he did with HTM are the greatest I have ever heard, of any keyboardplayer. Knee Bitten Nymphs In Limbo, need I say more I am not only talking about fast playing here, but of soul, feeling and...musician/instrument unison.

I personally think that Kit was very ambient even during the HTM years. I think that Starborne and Nossuri (The Moon I Sing) are both very "ambient" pieces. Kit has actually classical roots so it would be great also with a classical/symphonic CD from Kit The Master.

"... Kit has actually classical roots so it would be great also with a classical/symphonic CD from Kit The Master."

Yeah, but only not in a vein like Tony's (Banks) "Seven", please! That one is so booooring...