Bruce Boyd - Rainbow Reflections

Order Number ind190

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Bruce Boyd - "Rainbow Reflections - Tunes From the Rainbow Coast"

Obvious strains of Influence: Pink Floyd, Irish/ English/folk tunes, 60s surfer music, Moorish lines.

Denmark, Denmark River, Koorabup, 414 km south of Perth, Western Australia. One of the joys in life, and in this instance, one of the joys of album reviews is that you learn stuff you didn't know before. Such is the case with researching to review Bruce Boyd's CD album "Rainbow Reflections". The township of Denmark is a retreat for Boyd who moved there a couple of years ago to get away from "life and music in Perth". This album is Bruce's first dabble into the music he says he has fallen in love with, and refers to it as "mainly acoustic music". That's what "Rainbow Reflections" is.

All eleven tracks are self-penned and all feature his playing talents on the above listed instruments. Thematically the tunes fall into a loose affiliation of anglo-celtic Tunes (Mead Circle Dance, The Waterfall Reel, Karri Groves), an ode to '60s surfer folk (Sealsurf), a Moorish dirge (Elephant Rocks) and the like.

Echoes of Boyd's own '50s, '60s, '70s influences make appearances throughout, as evidenced in tracks like "Mt. Lindesay" - a Dave Moore (Pink Floyd) styled piece, while "Mazzoloti Beach" is a 6 min 22 secs Baroque chamber piece, backed by a new age sensibility that features a windswept, surf-crashing soundscape. "Karri Groves" follows and brings you into an Australia of colonial musings, a journey along the dusty coastal roads of Denmark and its unique flora. The "Somerset Hill Jigs" round out a very pleasant album, an English Folk set if ever there was one, and is inspired by the local vineyards of the district. "La joie du Anglais!"

Production wise, "Rainbow Reflections" is fairly consistent, with a couple of instances of levels not maintained between tracks, and some tracks that needed further listening to get the final balance right between instruments, yet this is not an uncommon problem when the player, the engineer, and the producer are one and the same person.

I enjoyed "Rainbow Reflections" on many different levels, mostly because it tapped into my own musical influences, yet also because there is a 'great-deal-of-fun-being-had' by Bruce Boyd in this signpost albums creation. Why a signpost? I think that after retreating to Denmark having 'lost his way', Bruce Boyd has now worked out his direction, he knows where he wants to go. "Rainbow Reflections" is an album worth having, and not least of all because it causes you to pause and dwell momentarily on the past, ponder the present, and conceive the future.

Review by Tigdh O'Glesain for indie-cds.com 2005