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Reviews

Simon McKechnie — Retro
(Bad Elephant Music BEM085, 2021, CD / DL)

by Jon Davis, Published 2021-06-25

Retro Cover art

Given the sheer volume of music that comes out every year (every day!), it’s easy to forget some of the great things that came out even a few years ago. Simon McKechnie’s last two albums, Newton’s Alchemy (2014) and From My Head to My Feet (2016) were both outstanding examples of sophisticated progressive rock with a tendency towards intellectual depth and musical complexity balanced with accessibility. On his latest, we’re treated to four tracks, starting out with the 20-minute “The Origin of Species,” which gets both inspiration and lyrical content from Charles Darwin’s groundbreaking book. McKechnie takes excerpts from the text of Darwin’s work and sings them as if they were poetry, though of course there are no rhymes. Placed in the context of progressive rock, it works superbly. “We behold the face of nature bright with gladness,” he sings, “we often see superabundance of food; we do not see, or we forget, that the birds which are idly singing round us mostly live on insects or seeds, and are thus constantly destroying life…” This is backed by music that draws from Yes, Genesis, Gentle Giant, and others, though it’s highly original in its own right. McKechnie himself sings and plays guitars, keyboards, bass, and so on; drummer Adam Riley, who was on board for the last two albums, again handles the complex compositions with power and subtlety; Mike Flynn contributes some additional guitar, though given McKechnie’s own skill it’s hard to say exactly where and when. Like all great longform pieces, it includes a variety of sections with different instrumentation and moods, from rocking parts with Squire-like bass and wah-wah guitar to gentle acoustic parts backed by piano or acoustic guitar. The other long piece on Retro is “The Enchantress of Number,” inspired by the life and work of Ada Lovelace, who is generally regarded as the first person to conceive of what computers might be capable of beyond simple mathematical computation. It’s another example of McKechnie’s skill at tackling scientific and historical topics without sounding dry and academic. “The Return of the Beagle” is an instrumental piece that expands on one of the sections of “The Origin of Species,” taking a lovely finger-picked acoustic guitar part and building it into a successful piece with several sections of its own. And then there’s the title track. “Retro” is a smile-inducing application of progressive rock and jazz fusion ideas to old-time rock and roll, twisting a I-IV-V chord progression in 4/4 into a whole variety of odd-meter variations with electronic enhancements and unexpected diversions. So Simon McKechnie is capable of having fun and duck-walking across the stage — while a riff in 17/8 or whatever bops along behind him. All in all, Retro presents a feast of the kind of cerebral appeal that makes progressive rock great while maintaining both feet-on-the-ground humanity and a sense of fun.

Filed under: New releases, 2021 releases

Related artist(s): Simon McKechnie

More info
http://mckechnie.bandcamp.com/album/retro

 

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