Terry Christopher

I have to say straight away that the quality of workmanship in the music here is nothing short of a breath of fresh air. We get so many CDs and demos dropping onto the mat here at KlubKat that we have recently had to go through them all and seriously narrow down the list of discs that would get a review, and it is no mistake that Terry Christopher is one of the first through the gate.

Terry Christopher is a consumate entertainer. Having received a BFA in dance, he moved onto singing and songwriting and hasn't looked back. He has toured the world, leading various revues and following in the footsteps of the greats. Born and raised in Las Vegas, it is clear where his showbusiness roots lie - this reviewer has been to Vegas many times for the shows and the atmosphere (I do not, alas, yet have enough disposable income to squander on the tables) and can vouch for the pull of the lights. Living there throughout his childhood, and interested in the showbusiness life, it was almost a given that Terry Christopher would take the time to build up the obvious talent he has now.

But what is the music like? For this review, I listened to the 10 track album "Take another Look". Although each track clearly has it's own uniqueness, the overall feeling is that of a combination of soft rock and Indie. There is romance, there is rhythm, there is a beat which has you humming as you work long after the disc has stopped spinning. This is great - a very pleasent surprise and a welcome change from the familiar samey material we often get to review. Often, the overriding feeling with unsigned bands is that they may be very good, but that there just isn't an audience for the sort of music they play in these changing times. I certainly can't say this about "Take another look". In fact, quite the opposite. Many of these tracks would be quite at home on any Indie or mellow rock radio show, even here in the UK where musical tastes are notoriously unforgiving.

Influences are listed as Marvin Gaye, Billy Joel, Earth Wind and Fire and the Beatles amongst others. And for once, you actually can hear these influences in the music. A lot of work has clearly gone into this album, and if Terry keeps pushing his art as he clearly has been throughout his life, then the only way is up.

In fact, The only track I didn't like was "Going going gone" which felt quite repetitive. Perhaps this is because it felt like something a typical boy band would put out, and that's not exactly my thing. On the other hand, I'm sure it will be a major selling point for others! On a CD of 10 tracks this luckily didn't marr the album, but unfortunately it was the first track! For this reason, it may well be one of Mr Christopher's favourites, and if so I apologise for my candidness, but to me it wasn't worthy of the rest. Thank god I continued listening...

The UK is often talked about as leading the way forward to the music for a new generation. We all go off on holiday to Ibiza and rave through the night, and have a habit of critisising anything different from the currently accepted standard - even if it was perfectly ok last week. Elsewhere in the world, however, it is different; and that is why some of the most refreshing CDs we get are from the other side of the pond. In the States all types of music are on offer, which makes it harder to choose what you like, but that is where this album will probably make it's real mark. Mr Christopher will no doubt end up with something of a fanbase in this country, but the real hits will be at home. Meanwhile, here's hoping for another revival in this country to bring back more material like this to the mainstream...

Now the critisism, which I'm afraid mainly regards the Website. Here we have a perfectly functional resource for selling the CD, but very little (in fact, nothing) about Mr Christopher himself. For some reason, the first two items on the main menu both linked to the same place when we looked - the CD baby site where you can buy his music. On top of this, the logo images displayed on the homepage haven't been trimmed properly to match the colour of the background so that they have little speckled halo effects around them. This is quite bizarre considering the amount of work that has obviously gone into the startup page (which I was forced to watch without any sign of a "Skip Intro" button) and the animated photos on the homepage. On the plus side, it's easy to buy the CD after reading our glowing review (!), and there is a page of lyrics, a big list of thanks to all and sundry, and a gig list. Nice touches - but we need more info on the man himself!