HENRY FOOL - HENRY FOOL - 2001

Put together by NO-MAN's vocalist/guitarist Tim Bowness, this band features PENDRAGON drummer Fudge Smith as well as keyboardist Stephen Bennett (who shares compositional duties with Bowness), bassist Peter Chilvers, guitarist Mike Bearpark and sax player Myke Clifford. Their eponymous album, released in 2001, was mixed by Steven Wilson (PORCUPINE TREE) whose imprint is unmistakable.

Although NO-MAN first comes to mind when you first hear the lyrics, the band's material is heavily rooted in jazz and psychedelia and comes off like some psychedelic version of PORCUPINE TREE or ECHOLYN, with the occasional nods to PINK FLOYD, SOFT MACHINE, KING CRIMSON, YES and IQ along the way. Drummer Fudge Smith also shows technical skills in the fusion realm he doesn't normally display within PENDRAGON. Their extensive use of keyboards (Mellotron, synths, electric piano, organ) evokes the 70's sound with moods altering between electric tension and relaxing, calm atmospheres. All this contributes to a rather pleasant, easy-going style that's not exactly groundbreaking but certainly not anywhere near neo-prog, despite some of the musicians' backgrounds.

If you're a fan of the bands mentioned above and with a particular penchant for ambient, spacy textures, you should certainly keep the name of the FOOL in your 'watch list'.


NO-MAN's Tim Bowness is part of this project along with PENDRAGON's Fudge Smith on drums.This is spacey,atmospheric music with lots of sax and mellotron.I really prefer this to NO-MAN by the way.Oh,and Steven Wilson mixed a couple of tracks. This album opens with no less than 3 instrumentals.The first one "Friday Brown" has spacey synths,guitar,fender rhodes piano and mellotron! A very atmospheric piece.The second song "Bass Pig" has distorted guitars to start with,cool drums,organ and mellotron.This is very Red era Crimson sounding.Kind of the opposite of the first song. "Poppy Q" is brighter with keys and mellotron.The bass and drums are excellent on this one.It has a spacey ending. "Lateshow"consists of 5 songs that blend together. The first is called "Midnight Days".This is where we first have the privelige of hearing Tim Bowness sing for the first time on the album.Right away the band NO-MAN comes to mind.This is beautiful,fragile and gentle.The next part "Blindman One" is led by the sax and it's still dreamy. "Poppy Z" is more uptempo and i love the dissonant sax."Blindman Two" features gentle sax and is very PINK FLOYD-like.Nice and spacey. Besides "Bass Pig" the next song "Grounded" is my favourite.The vocals,the flute,the mellotron,this is wonderful music.It does get heavy as the vocals come in with mellotron.Amazing sound! "The Laughter that Turned To Ice" and "Judy On The Brink" could both be on NO-MAN records,i even checked to see if they were, because they sounded so much like NO-MAN. In between those two tracks we have the mellow song "Jazz Monkey". "The David Warner Wish List" is a cool sounding experimental tune with fuzz bass and sax leading the way.It builds as synths,guitar and drums come in. "Heartattack" is an atmospheric song with vocals.Nice bass lines in this one. Some angular guitar,flute and sax in "The Mellow Moods Of Malcom McDowell".The next tune "Dreamer's Song" has vocals,piano and organ leading the way.Love the mellotron after a minute. "Tuesday Weld" ends the album with a dark instrumental.I like it! Especially the mellotron. I highly recommend this atmospheric,mellotron laden beauty.
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