Cynosure, Shift, and Kerry Logan

Albums Reviewed

The Art of Spontaneous Noise (1996)
The Grey Area (1998)
The Super 8 (2000)
Nine Eleven (A Shift Of A Demo) (2002)
Shift Happens (2003)
The Greatest Band You've Never Heard Of (2004)
The Wolf, The Warrior, The Boy (2007)

Cynosure

The Art of Spontaneous Noise

(1996)
Nowadays Hawera, a moderately sized Taranaki town in the south-western portion of the North Island (population 11 000), is perhaps best known as the teenage pregnancy capital of New Zealand. Back in the late 1990s (specifically, before it featured on Mikey Havoc's New Zealand tour), however, it was better known for its burgeoning rock scene - bands like the Big Bad Sad Boys and The Gypsys were building a career playing 21sts and jamming in private. Formed from the ashes of the Gypsys was Cynosure, begun when Hawera brothers Kerry and Bobby Logan used the early Christmas present of free studio time to create their first studio recordings in late 1995. This grew into Cynosure and their first full length release, which bettered The Clash's 1977 debut by only taking two weekends to record - The Clash's debut record took three weekends. 18 June 1996 marked the official release of The Art Of Spontaneous Noise, selling 1000 copies around the Hawera region. Like Peter Gabriel's 1977 debut it's very much the sound of a group trying to find an identity with a different style on almost every song, hardly surprising when considering that Cynosure had never played live before they recorded this. Indeed with worse production and a lot more toilet humour, this album wouldn't be too far from the genre-hopping efforts of early Ween. Still, it shows plenty of promise, mostly recorded by drummer Bobby and guitarist Kerry, whose excellent performances on their respective instruments are a feature of the band's work.

Indeed, this record starts strongly with three excellent pieces. 'Salute (Ode To)' aims high with an epic progressive rock feel (think David Gilmour fronting 'Comfortably Numb'), and was later featured on the L&P Compilation Something in the Water. The following 'Scared' features another strong riff, although its lazy distorted vocal gimmick and routine lyrics do betray the young age of its writers. 'Longest Word' is a charming acoustic ballad, which almost heads into R&B territory. Matching the standard of these early highlights is 'Farmer', a highly competent riff rocker. Elsewhere the seven minute 'Bev's Awesome Keyboard Day' is enjoyable, representing what Rick Wakeman solo albums might sound like if Wakeman had the discipline to restrict himself to one keyboard voicing for an entire song, but it's obvious filler in the context of the album. Meanwhile 'Fraud Relic' is especially let down by the cheap production, with an unintentionally hilarious juxtaposition between the cheap keyboard sounds and the heavy guitar. Still, this debut shows plenty of promise - there is some obviously fine material here, and fans of metal and prog in Hawera were certainly privileged to have a group of this caliber in their neighbourhood.


Jamshed/Purge

(1996)
I haven't covered this since it's not an official studio project, but for the discography it was recorded in late 1996. According to the group's PR Manager, it was created by the two bands of Jamshed (Erik Nagel and Bob-in-the-Bottle) and Purge (Bogus Bogan and Maim the Mighty), who joined forces to release a combined album. The PR Manager refuses to comment on rumours that it is simply a heavy-metal joke album made by members of Cynosure adopting psuedomyns.

The Grey Area

(1998)
Unlike The Clash, Cynosure managed to avoid the sophomore slump altogether - indeed this album is such a step up in terms of production that it's hard for it not to eclipse its predecessor, regardless of material. Equally important is the recruitment of three new band members; vocalist Shane Maraki provides much more presence and punch on the heavier songs, while full time members of keyboard (Mark Weir) and bass (Julian Maraki) also help to fill out the sound, giving the band much more impetus. The album was recorded at Avalanche Audio in New Plymouth using a Creative New Zealand Grant for $2000, although it was never officially completed before the band broke up, as band members were forced to move from Taranaki during the prolonged recording sessions. Like the debut it still features some unnecessary tracks, and would be stronger if some of the thirteen tracks were cut.

Disposable songs include the unnecessary instrumental 'And She Was Gone' (although the much more intense instrumental 'City of the Seven Hills' is one of the album's best tracks) and the generic rocker 'Headliners', while 'Groove Champion' would be in a more comfortable context if it was sped up and used as a backing track on a Donna Summer album. The hard rocking openers 'For Those Who Know' and 'Mordel' are extremely effective, while 'Drown' and 'Tomorrow's World' push the band's sound more towards power-pop with excellent effect, with the former in particular almost a hit waiting to happen. The more ambitious 'Bad Air' smoothly juxtaposes a poppy chorus with a relatively dissonant riff and a majestic piano riff, to excellent effect. There's a definite step forward from the debut here and it's a shame that the band ended here, although the core of the Logan brothers and Mark Weir went on to form Shift. While Cynosure's career was short and largely unnoticed outside southern Taranaki, it wasn't without its highlights - indeed if the strongest cuts from these two records were rerecorded with a proper producer and better equipment, there's potentially an excellent rock album waiting in the wings.


Center of Attention

(1998)
Again, I haven't covered this, but for the record it's the only officially live album from Cynosure. According to former band members, it highlights the live punch of Cynosure. Of interest to collectors, it includes a rare section of the Taranaki Battle of the Bands Finals in 1997 (which Cynosure won), recorded by friends of the band who turned up with a handheld tape recorder.

Shift

The Super 8

(2000)
After the disbandment of Cynosure, with the five members spread throughout the North Island, both Kerry and Bobby Logan found themselves working in Wellington, and reunited with Mark Weir to form the new three piece band Shift. Their first release was an all instrumental album, confidently named The Super 8, and recorded without a bass player, featuring solely the guitar, keyboard and drums trio. The entire album was written in a week (although to be fair, that's almost a week longer than the two hours it took Captain Beefheart to write Trout Mask Replica on piano, shortly after he encountered a piano for the first time), and recorded in just three hours. At eight songs, it's the tightest record in the Cynosure/Shift canon, with a consistent tone and flow, and it certain captures a creative time in the band's lifespan, with plenty of musical ideas, interesting solos and tight band interplay. While the instrumental nature of the album does highlight the musicianship that's a key strength of the band, but does get monotonous at times, as the recording doesn't do justice to the band's intensity and heaviness, and feels rather flat and one dimensional in places.

Still, there's plenty to be said for some of the rockers here, especially the opening 'Glazing Man', which showcases some of Kerry's most fiery riffing and inventive chord progressions. The frenetic 'Kristy' is another standout, with its keyboard and guitar lines doubling at impressively high speeds. Again, the cheap keyboard tones don't help the quieter songs, taking an edge off Weir's otherwise impressive playing and off the band overall. The deluxe 2004 reissue of this album features some particularly interesting bonus tracks - full versions of 'Morning' (here showcased in an instrumental version) and 'If I Only Could' both feature on the band's next project, the latter without the amusing vocal ad libbing over the guitar solo. Also featured among the bonus tracks is perhaps the most overlooked song in their back-catalogue, the throwaway yet enthralling Hobbit retelling 'There And Back Again', which is one of the many bonus tracks on the album to feature Tolkien themes. Perhaps more than any other album covered on this page, this is hurt the most by the recording quality - without character supplied by vocals, the shortcomings in sound are more apparent, not allowing the album to properly capture both the beauty nor the menace that's trapped below the surface in these compositions.


NinjaVision: Live With A Swedish Accent

(2002)
An oddity in the band's catalogue, Ninjavision was formed when Shift needed an opening act at short notice. The original three piece Shift lineup formed an impromptu Commodore 64 theme music covers band. I haven't heard this, but it is available - according to sources within the band, it's a poor quality recording and completely unrehearsed, but engaging nonetheless.

Nine Eleven (A Shift Of A Demo)

(2002)
After the three piece recording of The Super 8, Shift recruited a lead vocalist and a bass player, and reverted to a similar mould as Grey Area-era Cynosure; the group's singers aren't too dissimilar in style (if anything, new vocalist Ben Stevenson is a little more authoritative, with a richer voice), and if this record had been released under the Cynosure name it would have just been a natural progression from that group's work. Shift does sound more mature and confident than Cynosure, not surprising as a result of more live performances and experience. Nine Eleven, the first record from the five piece lineup, isn't a studio album per se, but a quick recording of their live set at the time, with thirteen of its fifteen tracks recorded in a mere five hours. The remaining four tracks on the disc, 'Plea' and 'Deliverance' and bonus covers of Black Sabbath's 'Wizard' and Queen's 'Death on Two Legs', both key influences, were recorded later in 2002 on an audition disc to open for Shihad. Even so, it's stronger than anything the group had done up to that point; it's easily a more satisfying record than either of Cynosure's albums, with a far more consistent set of songs and a more established sense of the band's style.

Of course, the consistency in material isn't surprising given that the group's live set included a lot of the best songs from the Cynosure era, and 'Longest Word', 'Bad Air', 'Mortel', and 'City of the Seven Hills', all highlights on their respective albums, appear here in forms that are more developed than ever. There's still a range of styles here, but it's much more coherent and subtle - on some of the heavier tracks like the opening 'Morning' they're pushing into Dream Theater territory (an almost inevitable comparison for a band playing complex, somewhat bombastic heavy music, with a prominent keyboard player), while even this album's gratuitous instrumental, a cover of Grieg's 'Hall Of The Mountain King', fits in nicely. There are some great new songs too - 'My Lobotomy' utilizes stacks of harmonies, while the full fledged versions of 'Morning' and 'If I Only Could' are among the best songs in the group's oeuvre. Like Queen before them, lyrics do seem like an afterthought for this band most of the time, and this is most apparent on their most heartfelt and pointed songs, such as the clichés of 'Plea' and 'Stranger'. Still, there are a stack of really well written songs on this record, and their performances are getting to the point where they didn't deserve to remain under radar any longer.


Shift Happens

(2003)
The six tracks on Shift Happens are easily the most professionally recorded in the entire Shift/Cynosure catalogue, and that alone makes it well worth hearing, even if all six tracks previously appeared on Nine Eleven. It's great to hear a relatively crisp Shift album, where the Mark's excellent keyboard playing isn't cheapened. Shift Happens only uses songs first recorded during the Shift era, which is a something of a shame since it would have been great to hear cleaned up versions of Cynosure's best material. The six songs here are something of a mixed bag, ranging from excellent (the prog-metal of 'Morning' and the theatrical, Queen-like 'Emporium') to the more low key and predictable acoustic style 'Plea' and 'Stranger'. 'My Lobotomy', the opening track and proposed single, is an interesting case, gentler and more direct than the band's normal oeuvre, reminiscent of Spirit with its jazzy keyboard breaks, warm vocals and disarmingly complex drumming. The reissue of the record includes a bunch of instrumental demos, which are hard to gauge without vocals, as well as an amusing interview with a teen-focused radio station where the group studiously try to avoid using the phrases "metal" and "progressive rock". As of early 2005, unless the group still has hidden treasures still lurking in their vaults, it looks like the end of the line for the Shift/Cynosure family, and this is presumably their last new recording.


The Greatest Band You've Never Heard Of

(2004)
This title's something on a paradox - by the time you're heard of Cynosure or Shift, let alone heard one of their records, they're no longer eligible for the category. Of course, pop music is a fickle mistress, and in retrospect a band with influences from metal and progressive rock in Wellington circa 2000 was something of an anachronism, and if this band had emerged at a different time their fortunes may have been different. With strong musicianship and the songwriters Weir and Kerry Logan putting together some strong material, the group had plenty of raw talent, and if they'd have some nurturing and success along the way it's inevitable that their back catalogue would be more solid than the set of endearing and promising demos that they currently exist as. The Greatest Band You've Never Heard Of collects songs from across Shift and Cynosure's back catalogue, including 'The Blues Song' and 'Snobs' from the 1996 Jamshed/Purge project that's not reviewed here. One feature that's noticeable from this collection from across their catalogue is that, although their albums as a whole improved in terms of cohesiveness and production over the course of their tenure, the quality of the best material is relatively constant over the course of their career.

I do have a few quibbles with the track selection on this compilation, assembled by Kerry Logan in late 2004, but it does a pretty good job of putting the group's best material in the same place. It's by and large presented in reverse chronological order, which is a sensible move as it places the most professionally recorded and therefore accessible recordings at the beginning of the record. The majority of Shift Happens is understandably collected and 'Stranger' works well as an opening track, while the album is divided relatively evenly between Cynosure and Shift material. 'Aragorn's Theme', originally an outtake from The Super 8 sessions, is included as a tease for completists. 'Salute (Ode To)' is a surprise omission, while 'There And Back Again', one of my personal favourites, is also missing, although it's not as surprising since it's purposefully lightweight. If you're looking for an entry point into the Shift/Cynosure catalogue, either this or Nine Eleven is the obvious choice; this probably has the edge since it includes some key Cynosure tracks like 'Drown' and 'Tomorrow's World'.


Kerry Logan

The Wolf, The Warrior, The Boy

(2007)
Almost fifteen years after cutting his teeth with Hawera jam band Gypsys, Kerry Logan released his solo debut The Wolf, The Warrior, The Boy. Inspired by legends of the synchronisations between Pink Floyd's The Dark Side Of The Moon and The Wizard Of Oz, The Wolf, The Warrior, The Boy was constructed to fit with cult children's movie The Neverending Story, with the lyrics also inspired partially by the movie (but with no luck dragon). In interviews, however, Logan has also admitted that like the mystical stream-of-consciousness of Yes' Jon Anderson, a lot of his words aren't supposed to have a literal meaning. As befits a solo album, Kerry handles most of the instruments himself, joined by his brother Bobby on drums, while jazz student Matthew Henderson guests on keyboards. Overall, The Wolf, The Warrior, The Boy is Logan's strongest work yet - while the conceptual framework gives it a more constant feel, especially in the second half, it also is a stronger set of songs than anything on any individual Shift or Cynosure studio album.

The first half of the album is the more problematic, with little things awry about each song, although the acoustic 'The Place Of Memories' is a definite winner. The opening 'The Oracle' seems a little too blatantly reminiscent of something that early Queen would open their album with, the loud piano and quiet drums in 'The Sadness' are irritating (although the bluesy guitar break before the second verse is the most electrifying moment of the record), and as fun as the thrashy 'The Wolf' is, Kerry doesn't coax quite a hard-edged enough sound of his larynx. The second half of the album is much more consistent in tone and the album finishes extremely strongly with the melodic and acoustic guitar driven groove of 'The Princess' and the aggressive 'The End Comes', while the closing instrumental 'The Journey' is downright triumphant. In reality most of my complaints are nitpicking; there are eight pretty strong, and some extremely impressive, cuts here, and for a self-recorded and self-produced effort it's extremely commendable. The Wolf, The Warrior, The Boy is available for download from here.


For more information about Shift and Cynosure, please visit http://www.therocklords.com.

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Written 2001-2009, Graham Fyfe