When we first received this CD, we weren't too sure what we had let ourselves in for. Pray tell, we thought, what was to be this onslaught to our eardrums?

Carefully, we placed the CD into our player and pressed the play button, settling back for our first taster. We kind of knew that it probably wasn't going to be bad, but with a title like this you just have to wait and see.

So here we are, just two minutes into the first track and already starting to relax. Ten minutes in and we are thoroughly relaxed. These guys are doing some seriously interesting stuff, setting the works of the bard against the sound of jazz and pulling it off quite unexpectedly well. When you pay for a ticket to see the Reduced Shakespeare company, you know exactly what you are going to see - Shakespeare with a humorous edge. We think Hidden Drives should get out there and make themselves known in the same way - one day, people should be able to say "Hidden Drives - that's Shakespearian jazz, isn't it?"

To be honest, we could also expand on the title a little. It calls itself Jazz, which is of course a direct reference to the instruments played - but a number of the tracks on "Chants of a Ghost" have a fairly bluesy feel to them. Think somewhere half way between New Orleans and Memphis! At the end of the day, though, it is hard to put any of this into a box - it's an entirely unique concoction of styles which just has to be heard.

This work reminds us of an artist working on his canvas as each layer of paint is added. It's a window onto the minds of the musicians and flows effortlessly even though it is, by definition, improvisational music. True artists of sound.

The only negative point we would make is that there is perhaps too much emphasis at times on the words, with the music fading right away in the background - and the saxophone seems to get very overused - sometimes this creates the feel that a particular track is starting to become boring, but I guess this depends on how much you are in to the style.

In conclusion: If you like modern Jazz, you'll probably like this whether you appreciate Shakespeare or not. If you don't, then you'll hate it with a vengeance. We could go out and do a survey of folks in Stratford-upon-Avon, but we suspect they wouldn't be too insulted by this interpretation of their local celebrity!

Hidden Drives website: http://stilesweb.com/hiddendrives