Drummer/composer Mark Murdock’s new Cymbolic Encounters album Overexposure mixes a Canterbury soup of Hatfield and the North, Camel, and a bit of Steve Hillage octave doctoring. It’s a departure from the last record that pulsed with a “nuclear burn” as it enlisted the talents of (the sadly late) John Goodsall and Percy Jones of Brand X fame.
The album-opening title song bleeds with the beauty of an Andy Latimer Camel guitar solo with his usual naïve touch of a fall rain’s melodic warmth. Tim Pepper’s nonchalant vocals sort of recall (the great!) Richard Sinclair’s Caravan and Hatfield and the North delivery, and Cymbolic Encounters plays with an equally nonchalant prog-rock pulse that still, even after all these years, just wants to “Hold Grandad by the Nose.”
Then Overexposure delves deeply into instrumental music. “A Disturbance in the Force” lingers with a melodically minimal backing while that Andy Latimer-like melodic guitar work (thank you, Dave Jutean and Preston Murdoch!) sings to the heavens. Just to add another reference, the music also recalls Andy Powell’s Wishbone Ash “Persephone” lovely guitar drama.
Ditto for “More Madness in the Forecast.” This tune, with pulsing bass and spacey keyboards (almost) turns, with yet another rippling guitar solo, into a cosmic Canterbury Cathedral Saint Thomas Becket-haloed blues jam. Nice! Then, “Returning from a Four Day Journey to the Sun” ventures further into jazz rock, with more deep bass, a nice persistent percussion, and cosmic swirling keyboards – with, of course, more endlessly melodic guitar. This music glances at itself in a friendly funhouse mirror.
“Resisting Normality” brings back Tim Pepper’s vocals for a song that, again, catches the flavor of Hatfield and the North, with a bit of Larks’ Tongues injected into the melodic Aspic. The same can be said about “Zone Out,” as it has a similar groove to “Easy Money,” with a momentary (and this is really cool!) moment of the Kinks’ “You Really Got Me” glance, plus a Caravan free-for-all keyboard instrumental bit, and even more brilliant guitar work. It wobbles in a nicely weird pre-punk rock orbit!
The prog-jazz continues: “Soul Lanterns” has an urgent guitar riff, while the keyboards, bass and percussion perform a lovely juxtaposed cosmic dance during which all odd puzzle pieces just seem to fit into place. As my friend Kilda Defnut said, “You can take the Brand X players out of this recording, but you can’t take the Brand X ‘Euthanasia Waltz’ out of this music.”
“Reaching for Tranquility” is the soliloquy with bass bumping honesty, a (sightly) funky keyboard groove, a persistent percussion, and a truth-telling electric guitar solo—with a bit of Genesis’ “Carpet Crawlers” thrown into the beginning and end of the tune. Nice, again!
The final tunes on Cymbolic Encounters’ Overexposure follow the blueprint. “Falling Satellites” begins with a roughed guitar bit, and then is engulfed in a reflective twilight moment. “The Future We Once Knew” puts a finishing stroke on this jazz-rock (almost perfect) circumference, which spins with the continuing naivety of a fall rain’s still warm and always very musical “100 Proof” melodic touch.
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