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Gryphon — Get Out of My Father's Car!
(Bandcamp GRIFCD02, 2020, CD / DL)

by Peter Thelen, Published 2021-05-13

Get Out of My Father's Car! Cover art

I guess this is proof positive that Gryphon’s 2018 album Reinvention was not a one-off — in fact this latest morsel of craziness, Get Out of My Father’s Car! (the title is an inside joke of sorts, the whole story detailed in the liner notes), is every bit as strong as its predecessor, unleashed on the world in the final weeks of 2020 (although it took yours truly a couple months to track down a copy). The band members are nearly the same as last time, with core original members Dave Oberlé (drums, percussion, and vocals), Guitarist Graeme Taylor, and Brian Gulland (bassoon, recorder, soprano sax, piano, organ, harpsichord, harmonium, vocals, and melodicator — look it up), with relative newcomer Andy Findon (flute, piccolo, soprano, tenor and baritone saxes, clarinet, and soprano krumhorn). New to this edition of the band are Clare Taylor (violin and vocals) and bassist Rob Levy. It seems like almost all of the members get involved with the songwriting, and even folks outside the band, including Findon’s older brother Gary who passed away in 1969, all make contributions. The eleven songs on the CD are roughly split evenly between vocal and instrumental numbers, one of the more interesting vocal numbers is “A Brief History of a Bassoon” told from the bassoon’s perspective, as he remembers many years ago when he was a tree. The instrumental tune “Krum Dancing” fuses beautiful folk and ancient sounds with bits of rock, classical, and more, it’s everything one would expect from classic Gryphon. The gentle and gorgeous “A Stranger Kiss” is one of two cuts that showcases Clare Taylor’s voice, with flute, violin, and acoustic guitars, while “Forth Sahara” shifts gears several times over its four minute duration. Few bands around offer as much stylistic diversity as Gryphon, and with Get Out of My Father’s Car! they seem to have hit a high water mark for originality. The download version has a twelfth track, an all new live version of "Lament," originally from Red Queen to Gryphon Three.

Filed under: New releases, 2020 releases

Related artist(s): Gryphon

More info
http://gryphontrax.bandcamp.com/releases

 

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