![\"\"](\"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/dbs_giants.jpg\")
Though he\u2019s not credited as such, Billy Sherwood\u2019s extensive role in the making of Days Between Stations\u2019 Giants<\/i> should earn him membership in the group. Officially, DBS is Oscar Fuentes Bils and Sepand Samzadeh, but Sherwood is co-credited as arranger, producer and composer. Instead, he\u2019s listed as a \u201cguest artist,\u201d alongside bassist Colin Moulding (of XTC), Durga McBroom (late-period Pink Floyd) and Inid Abiza.<\/p>\n
Ultimately who-does-what is less important than the quality of the album overall. And it\u2019s effective stuff: Bils and Samzadeh craft catchy melodies in a style that has clear antecedents in progressive-, space- and classic rock. That said, Giants doesn\u2019t fit neatly into any of those arbitrary categories. For the most part (and with two notable exceptions), it\u2019s too musically conventional to qualify as prog, too tuneful to be classified as space-rock and too interesting to be pegged with the \u201cclassic\u201d epithet.<\/p>\n
\u201cGoes By Gravity\u201d features the distinctive lead vocals of Moulding; it\u2019s wonderful to hear him on record doing more than playing bass. Moulding has always been a top-notch songwriter; what he isn\u2019t unfortunately, is prolific. So even though he\u2019s lending his talents here to the work of others, it\u2019s a welcome appearance.<\/p>\n
The centerpieces of the album, however, are two sprawling tracks: \u201cSpark\u201d and \u201cGiants.\u201d The latter features Sherwood pon lead vocals and some very Chris Squire-ish bass work. The lea guitar passages that show up mid-song are quite enjoyable, in a very influenced-by-David-Gilmour kind of way; it\u2019s fascinating to hear how that style meshes with the throaty, Rickenbacker bass textures. Appealing splashes of drums (Sherwood? Maybe but we can\u2019t be sure) lead into an extended instrumental section built aorund multiple keyboard lines. The music is reminiscent of mid-period Porcupine Tree, specifically in the sense that they keyboard work is appealing but not especially notable in a technical\/chops sense.<\/p>\n
\u201cSpark\u201d is a complex tune that does deliver progressive sensibility. It\u2019s an exciting, largely instrumental piece that move through a number of passages. Some of the aural textures seem a bit on the canned side, but there\u2019s some appealing, highly distorted organ work to be found within.<\/p>\n
An instrumental track, \u201cThe Gathering\u201d has at its center a lovely acoustic guitar, played in a style reminiscent both of Steve Howe and Trilogy<\/i>-period Greg Lake (ELP). \u201cThe Common Thread\u201d provides some of Giants\u2019 most rocking moments, centered on some chunky bass guitar work from Sherwood. The tune may remind some listeners of Drama<\/i>-era Yes.<\/p>\n
Again, it\u2019s difficult to discern what exactly the Days Between Stations duo brings to the album, thanks to Sherwood\u2019s large role and prominent presence. But if one focuses less on the credits and more upon the result, Giants<\/i> is an enjoyable listen that pays dividends on repeated spins.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Though he\u2019s not credited as such, Billy Sherwood\u2019s extensive role in the making of Days Between Stations\u2019 Giants should earn him membership in the group. Officially, DBS is Oscar Fuentes […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":19706,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49,56,62,65],"tags":[323,646],"class_list":["post-19705","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-new-release","category-prog","category-rawk","category-review","tag-billy-sherwood","tag-days-between-stations","cat-49-id","cat-56-id","cat-62-id","cat-65-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19705","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19705"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19705\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19707,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19705\/revisions\/19707"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19706"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19705"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19705"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19705"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}