NINE STONES CLOSE (E)

Adrian Jones is the man behind this solo project. Usually he plays guitar and sings in a band called Lie Big of which he’s also the main songwriter. In Lie Big the music is raised on rock and grunge, while this solo effort is more progressive in nature. Jones plays all kinds of acoustic and electric guitars, bass and he uses MIDI and ‘Drums On Demand’. This rather short eponymous album consists of twelve songs of which most are connected, so it’s easy to listen to the whole album without intermissions. The almost ambient opening contains floating sounds and a distant echoing guitar. A sound as if someone takes a picture and a steady bass drone is used to express Jones' ability to play lead guitar. The sound of the guitar is somewhat raw and distorted. In the second part drums and bass are added and the dreamy atmosphere changes into a more rock orientated end piece. Piano sounds, a drum computer, echoing guitar chords and synthesizers are the fundaments for Crashed in which you'll hear Jones' spacey vocals. When the echoing guitar fades away, you'll hear sounds of bubbling water in Drowning Now and Jones starts plucking his echoing electric guitar. A second guitar and Jones’ dreamy vocals help to build up to more guitars, bass and drums. The atmosphere is a bit like the melancholic sound of Porcupine Tree, but Jones’ voice is deeper. Silently Screaming features plucking and floating higher notes of two guitars on this 'guitar alone' track. The most rock orientated song on the album is Remaining Days built around a strong guitar riff. A Sense Of Colour shows a lot of influences from David Gilmour (Pink Floyd), both the vocals and the guitar; not too original maybe, but it sounds really cool. The same dreamy, spacey atmosphere can be found in Ran Aground, until drums and raw distorting guitars transform this track more in the vein of an up-tempo song by Porcupine Tree. Hospital Bubble is the longest track of the album, echoing spacey vocals and a simple plucking echoing guitar are the main ingredients of the first part; the second part sounds pretty much like Pink Floyd to me. The last part is a reprise of the first one and fades away real slowly. In Interlude the accompaniment are acoustic guitar chords and some electric guitar playing the lead. The reprise of Remaining Days is equally powerful and rocking albeit after an almost ambient opening piece. Two guitar leads and double vocals are the characteristics in the last mid-tempo track, in the vein of guitar oriented Porcupine Tree.

Nine Stones Close is a nice offering, much more appealing to me than the music made by Big Lie, but still in the huge pile of music available through all sorts of channels. This album is nothing really spectacular, but rather pleasant to listen to.