Frankly, only now for the first time I met with the British music band Times Up . And they already have to their credit two albums: "Storm Coming In" and "Snow Queen". This new third album in the band's discography appeared in 2014, but only came into my hands a few weeks ago.
Apparently it differs from its predecessors, a little different, a few changed personnel - Now the Times Up team is composed of up to seven musicians: Mike Hagland (g), Andy Gibbon (bg, g, v), Richard Lawton (sax, fl, k, v), Steve Leman (dr), Ron Rogers (k), Bob Teague (k v), and endowed with a low, almost "masculine" voice of the singer Linda Barnes. The album "Sea Of Schemes" shared six songs, of which up to four are multi sectioned, lasting about 10 minutes. They are not the easiest songs to listen to. They do not always consist of the obvious melodic solutions , their structure arranged in a logical way. So it is not "light, easy and fun" music. Instead, they are quite eclectic: sometimes symphonic, sometimes atmospheric, sometimes ambient, sometimes classic rock. Ambiguous to determine, and therefore it is difficult to attach a particular label. As always in such cases, the most capacious concept becomes "progressive rock" which is probably why here and there I met with the opinion that Times Up is "one of the most progressive bands of the younger generation."
What affects this, largely, deserved reputation? The band does not try to imitate anyone, do not try to copy the best schemes, and work at a distance from the mainstream neoprogressive rock. Trying to courageously follow their own path, not looking at the fashion trends and radio formats.
The personal composition given above shows that in their music, keyboard sounds dominates Times Up. As many as three of the band members playing synthesizers, so it's no wonder that they set the tone for each track filling compositions on the album "Sea Of Schemes". Well, they fall into a collision with the sounds of guitars - more and more sharp, almost hard rock , fit into some songs ("Sea Of Schemes", "Let The North Wind Blow") classic progressive sound. Another feature of Times Up music is to skilfully combine the female (Linda Barnes) and male (Andy Gibbon) vocals, but you must remember that it is Linda and her voice that most of the time is in the main spotlight. And there is another aspect: the frequent presence of saxophones, flutes, and even banjo. Their use is the unique character of the band's music. It is heard, at it’s best on "Snakes and Ladders", incidentally, one of the outstanding composition on the album.
The album "Sea Of Schemes" takes on the values at each subsequent hearing. As I mentioned, it does not contain obvious tracks, and thus is immediately catchy. Times Up music is unpredictable and you can never predict in which direction it will follow. Probably because this album is so intriguing, surprising and interesting. I think you should listen to the music of this talented British band and it will be worth following their further career.
