Northumbrian 4-piece progressive rock band, Unit8, have just released their second album – The Second Arch – and a most enjoyable listen it is too. In fact, it might even have topped their impressive eponymous debut release from late 2022, with even more coherence and musical consistency on show over the course of whole album.
Hailing from Alnwick, the band are a studio-orientated collective of experienced local musicians who produce progressive-leaning music, but which reflects all of their diverse backgrounds and influences – prog rock, jazz fusion, classical, blues, folk and mainstream classic rock. Although they describe themselves as neo-prog, they have a broader range of musical styles on offer, which continues to maintain an engaging freshness and diversity to their music that is never constrained by genre definitions.
The personnel remain unchanged from the debut. Paul Gee and Kris Popat supply guitars and lead and backing vocals, with Kris also adding keyboards. Dave Coates provides bass guitar and backing vocals, while Frank Hockney plays drums and percussion, as well as some keyboards and samples. They create an appealing, holistic instrumental amalgam of sound that can be flexible enough to support the range of songs on offer here.
Everything is Silence begins proceedings confidently, with folk-tinged acoustic guitar and resonating vocals soon joined by more prog-style keyboards. Frank’s sci-fi edged lyrics have a dark, almost bleak tone to them, but flow well with the mid-tempo drum and bass rhythm. Electric guitar comes more to the fore later on, providing more depth (even a touch of Rush on the 12-string guitar near the end), and there are also some interesting contemporary progressive twists in tempo. The band seem to resist the temptation to let the music fully off the lease and become truly epic, but this control helps keeps the song nicely grounded and well-structured throughout.
Driven By The Wind is a lighter, more upbeat and melodic track. It started off as the band’s 3-minute ‘yacht rock’ song, with the lyrics linked to aspects of the sea (colours, light, power, legends etc.), reflecting the proximity to the coast that all the band members have. It has developed into a nice slice of pop-prog, with the central electric guitar motif nicely accessible and providing a smoothness to the sound throughout.
Loop The Line is a Kris-penned song, which is very much in two parts. It starts with some vibrant instrumentation in sevens, built around two separate falling harmonic patterns which flow into each other, over a simple, engaging tune. The second part of the song has lyrics centred around what we perceive and learn about greed, caution, worry and hope, and has a more sleepy, reflective feel to it, but the brief guitar solo provides lifts it up nicely.
Movement really highlights the folky side to their prog rock (almost Fairport Convention and Strawbs in style to these ears), with the sound of the sea and a tolling bell taking us on a journey focusing on migration throughout the years, along with climate change. Some engaging acoustic guitar patterns and twinkling percussion, and there is hope and optimism in the vocals in this modern sea shanty. Simple, but rather charming all the same.
There is more twisting complexity in Maidez, one of the progressive highlights on the album. It’s an electric guitar-led mix of several interesting themes, with hints of jazz fusion (Al DiMeola, Mike Stern etc.), Frank Zappa and even echoes of Rush here and there. The melodic music flows effortlessly and the closing solo is most enjoyable.
Watching Over You is a more understated and intimate, pastoral song dealing with the need to move on with your life after the pain of losing someone close to you – with the central message that ‘time heals’. The vocal harmonies over the acoustic guitar provides a soothing serenity, with the keyboard backwash ebbing and flowing to good effect.
One More Time is another song from Kris. More mainstream in style, with guitar and keyboards over a cantering and occasionally choppy rhythm – the lyrics are about two people hiding from each other. Almost ELO-like at times, with the antagonistic and challenging words mirrored by the subtle changes in the music.
28 Arches concerns the Royal Borders Bridge spanning the River Tweed at Berwick. The band felt this impressive engineering feat deserved a song, so they’ve fashioned a mini-epic and another album highlight. The opening atmospheric section represents the open space where the river was to be bridged, with the heavier, proggier musical section that follows conveying the industrial nature of the construction and feels very Big Big Train in places (no bad thing for this reviewer!) Guitar and keyboards over the busy bass and drum rhythm works very well. The final section is about the first train journey across the bridge and the hopes brought by the bridge at the time, with a flowing acoustic guitar to close.
The closing instrumental Now To Sleep (For Ben) is a rather beautiful and poignant folky acoustic guitar piece that reflects the bucolic feel that pervades much of the album. There is added poignancy when you know it is about Paul’s dog, Ben, who sadly passed during the album’s recording and a couple of barks from him closes the song for posterity.
With The Second Arch, Unit8 have successfully built upon the promising debut album and produced another balanced and well-constructed album of lighter prog-leaning, folk-tinged and song-centred music across a range of styles that flows naturally over the 9 diverse tracks. Refraining from the need for musical showboating and complexity for the sake of it, the album is very much a throwback to those days when albums were there to entertain a listener and take you on a journey without the need to signal their genre influences. A pleasing, home-spun, chocolate box of musical treats to dip into when the mood takes you, with warming vocals and complementary instrumentation – all well produced by Ally Lee at Mill Studios in Alnwick. A North-East progressive band worth checking out on Bandcamp. Away from the big names, it remains important that such enjoyable musical endeavours are supported at grassroot level.
TRACK LISTING
01. Everything Is Silence (9:33)
02. Drive By The Wind (5:17)
03. Loop The Line (5:31)
04. Movement (5:49)
05. Maidez (6:07)
06. Watching Over You (8:04)
07. One More Time (6:18)
08. 28 Arches (7:36)
09. Now To Sleep (For Ben) (1:46)
Total Time – 56:01
MUSICIANS
Dave Coates – Bass, Backing Vocals
Paul Gee – Guitars, Lead & Backing Vocals
Frank Hockney – Drums, Percussion, Keyboards, Samples
Kris Popat – Guitars, Lead & Backing Vocals, Keyboards
ADDITIONAL INFO
Record Label: Independent
Country of Origin: U.K.
Released: 16th August 2024
LINKS
Unit8 – Facebook | Bandcamp | YouTube