If you like your instrumental prog, then chances are that Nick Johnston and his new album Remarkably Human will be right up your street. Eight tracks of delicious instrumental music, it’s a fairly good listen that has some real high points within.
At times, it does feel a little ‘generic’, with some sections not really feeling all that interesting and engaging – and when it comes to instrumental music, it often needs to be a little bit more special in order to compensate for the lack of vocals leading the music. It isn’t something that occurs often on Remarkably Human, which is an otherwise great album, but it is a little noticeable on a couple of occasions.
A particularly good element of the album is the colour and emotion in the musical delivery – it’s something really special, and one of the best examples of this is in penultimate track Fear Had Him By The Throat. The fast-paced and moody opening to the song really sets the scene and gives the song a sense of urgency before you’re treated to a somewhat simplistic but wholly effective guitar solo that adds a lot more ambience and atmosphere to an already-engaging song. The song then progresses well from there into a softer approach with some more technical guitar lines and the different approaches merge well together, which is great to hear.
An overall enjoyable album and a pleasure to listen to – if you’re big on your instrumental stuff, then make sure you don’t miss this one.
7.5/10
