Big Wheel - Far Away

Hear The Track Here

Let's start off by saying that I know nothing whatsoever about Big Wheel, other than this track coming up in the list this month. Mind you, the very kind hearing he gave in a recent review of my stuff definitely made me notice him. T'ain't often, ya see, the the reviewer gets reviewed and one must grasp at any straws at my age. The review, btw, was completely his decision KNOWING (I hope) that I wouldn't allow anything to change my objectivity as a reveiwer. In my world, I don't care who you are; friend, foe, mate, nemesis, you give me a duff track and I'll number its ways. Can't help it, it's the way I'm built. Yet another hurdle Big Wheel has to overcome in this review is the genre he works in: Electronica in general and Mellow in particular.

Yep, I don't do mellow very well either.

So, that's a lot of adverse crap even before we even get to the music. Big Wheel counters all this by delivering a peice of electronica that sounds anything but. To be sure it's mellow, in a smoky jazz kinda way but for all that there is still a pretty insistent 'on your feet soldier' command from the inbuilt propulsion unit. This is especially true after the two and a half minute mark, I found meself boogying to that more than once or twice. The really surprising thing is that Big Wheel states he has only been doing this project since the begining of this year but this track fairly shouts authority and experience so what gives?

Do a little more digging on the page and you'll find out that BW is a solo project, this artist usually plays in another band. The experience is evident on this track by some faultless playing, some absolutely lovely chord progressions and the best acoustic guitar synth I have ever heard. It can't (can it?) be a real acoustic guitar? Covering just over five and a half minutes, you would need to also have some pretty handy arranging skills to keep up interest over such a long time and Big Wheel has no problems there either. Ultimately, Far Away is a damn fine track in every way and one I will certainly be hanging onto. Don't look too hard at the genre classification on this, it goes a lot further than that. An instrumental that has as much muscle as brain. Nice combination and guess what??...

Highly Recommended chillout (with added jive)