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Finneus Gauge - One Inch Of The Fall

Artist:	Finneus Gauge
Title:	One Inch Of The Fall
Label:	Train Records TR79603/Cyclops CYCL 077
Length(s):	68/71m minutes
Year(s) of release:	1999
Month of review:	03/1999 and 05/1999

Line up

Christopher Buzby - keyboards, backing vocals
John Buzby - drums, backing vocals
Chris Eike - bass
Laura Martin - lead and backing vocals
Scott McGill - electric and acoustic guitars

Tracks

1)	Open Up The Fog Lines	5.03
2)	In A Different Hour	5.53
3)	One Inch Of The Fall	8.39
4)	Blogee's Lament	6.34
5)	Unsinkable You	5.53
6)	State Of The Art	7.14
7)	Early Sun	5.22
8)	Golden Pretzel	6.25
9)	More Wants More (live)	7.15
10)	A Mess Of Finesse (live)	5.44
11)	Press The Flesh (live)	7.14

In the US version on Train Records, instead of the final three live tracks, you'll hear Billy Joels Piano man and some backwards playing.

Summary

Their second one, both home released and on Cyclops. As you can see I have both version now and will treat both where they differentiate. McGill has left the band to devote his time to his own band Scott McGill and the Hand Farm. Not much sense in looking at the estimated times on the backside of the American version, since they are rather off.

The music

Open Up The Fog Lines opens the followup of their acclaimed (also by me) debut. Laura Martin is still at the vocal wheel, but there are also the unavoidable backing vocals (not so prominent it seems as on the debut, which was more Echolyn-like in that respect). This first track is a bit laid back, with the vocal being the focal point and the keyboards and guitar dividing up the rest. Towards the end the song becomes a bit more involved and the drummer forces himself into the picture (and justifiably so). A very good opening. In A Different Hour is a bit more bouncy. There's a kind of spirit of the seventies wandering around here. Maybe it is the absence of heavy guitars and loud production and the presence of plenty of organ-like keyboards that give me this idea. Plenty of nice melodies here, with the melody of the chorus being the most striking one. The title track is next up. Stylistically the music does not change overly much and what strikes me mostly during these first few tracks is that the guitar is mixed rather in the back, while the varied drumming and percussion of John Buzby stands rather up front. The low key part is especially nice here. Blogee's Lament is a weird one, at least the beginning. For the most part this is a busy fusionist/jazz rock track, but with some rather typical keyboardplaying. Unsinkable You goes into the Echolyn direction (the harmonies of course). The vocals are drawn out even longer on this track. One would expect that vocals as relaxed as these would make one sleepy, but fortunately this does not happen. State Of The Art is consistent with the previous, but rather neurotic at times. Early Sun seems a sunny track with acoustic guitar and twinking keyboard sounds. When the music speeds up a bit it becomes almost Latin. Not one of the better tracks on the album. The regular album closes with Golden Pretzel. This is the loudest track on the album with rather aggressive vocoded vocals and on the whole lots of things going on. Sort of like a jazzrock version of King's X. The songs gets to be quite chaotic toward the end.

On the US (Train Records) version: In the bonus part of the album we find a lofi version of Billy Joels Piano Man. Incredibly lofi and low budget as well. Afterwards some Finneus played backwards.

On the European (Cyclops) version: Three live tracks the originals of which from the first album. The sound is not very polished and the vocals sound a bit further in the back than they should have. Of course live the music is not as clean as on disc (would we have it any other way?). The harmonies are quite good for live performances. The follow up A Mess Of Finesse is a veyr melodic track with some great vocal melodies. Powerful. The last one is Press The Flesh. Again, the band shows how good their songs are. In view of the performances, I hope they will soon cross the ditch to Europe.

Nice artwork up front. I do not know why they have not included the lyrics.

Conclusion

The style of the band has not changed overly much: progressive jazzrock with a good ear for melody, good compositions and good playing. I hear less and less of Echolyn here and names like Happy The Man and Gentle Giant also pop up. The guitar seems to be less important than on the previous disc and as such the Holdsworth references have also lessened. One might say that the band has more and more become itself and are an original force to be reckoned with. As before it took me some time to get into the album, but a few spins and it will yield its laid-back secrets to you as well.