(Progressive Rock/Canterbury) Ken Watson - A Little Chin Music - 2000, FLAC (image+.cue) lossless

Ken Watson is a multi-instrument preformer and composer. His his music is inspired by such notables as Happy the Man, Zappa, Gentle Giant, and is noted for it's complexity, depth and melody.

Ken Watson Biography
(from www.kinesiscd.com)

It wasn’t until the late 1970’s that Ken began specifically to listen to progressive rock. Someone turned him onto the Washington DC progressive band Happy the Man (still one of his favorites) and after that, he was hooked. He began to devour any music he could find with the progressive label tagged to it. He also discovered 20th century composers such as Ravel, Bartok, Stravinsky, Messian, etc.

In 1979, Ken assembled a band called Black Market with a guitarist from Iceland named Gulli Faulk, bassist Buddy Stewart, and drummer David Webb. They played all-original instrumental progressive jazz-rock. The band stayed together for about one year and played around the Jacksonville, Florida area. It was in Black Market that Ken first began to write music and where some of the first seeds of Assembly were planted.

Ken later moved to Montgomery, Alabama to attend school at a small college. While there, he met Terry and Jerry Morgan, two brothers who owned a recording studio in town. They offered him a very inexpensive rate to record an LP of music. With the help of David Webb on drums, Ken began to write and record Assembly during 1985. Buddy Stewart (another Black Market alumnus and a fine bassist) was enlisted to play on one track (Skeleton in Armor). Long distance travel and a busy schedule prevented Buddy from contributing further to the project. Ken released the album on LP himself in early 1986. Roughly 500 copies were manufactured and all were sold. By breaking even, he was encouraged to attempt a second LP project which he negotiated with the studio in 1987.

Ken began work on the second project in late 1987 and recorded the basic tracks for 20 minutes worth of material with drummer Craig Riches. (David had moved away and was no longer available.) Craig was an old school friend from Jacksonville who then lived in the nearby city of Birmingham, Alabama. In later months, personal issues (marriage, children, job) began to demand more of his time, and Ken slowly lost interest in the project. On rare occasions he would venture into the studio to record a part or two. Also, he decided to move to the Atlanta, Georgia area, about three hours from the studio.

In late 1992, Ken decided to finish the second project. The studio was loathe to let him return to finish the entire album project after so much time had passed. They did, however, allow him to finish the 20 minutes of material he had begun. In 1993, Larry Kolota of Kinesis contacted Ken about rereleasing Assembly on CD and happily agreed to include the recently finished material from the aborted second album.

Ken Watson’s aim as a musician is simply to write and present good music with an original voice - simple to state, but difficult to achieve. He likes a piece of music to contain a lot of surprises, but for its development to make logical sense in retrospect. Influences are too numerous to list all, but some notable ones are Dave Stewart (National Health, Bruford, etc.), Scott Johnson, Frank Zappa, Trey Anastasio (Phish), Frenchmen Albert Marcouer and Francois Breant, Chick Corea, Happy the Man, Steve Reich, Kenso (from Japan), Zamla Mammaz Manna (from Sweden), and PFM (from Italy).

In 1999, Ken released his second album The Twinkle Factor. This is a totally solo project using MIDI gear (sequencers and synths) and guitar to realize it. While he states a dislike for music produced this way, due to the resulting inhuman, antiseptic sound and feel, he welcomes the challenge to create a warm, interactive sound. The advantages of the new technology far outweigh the disadvantages! Because of other priorities and lack of time, Ken regrets he will likely never again assemble a band to perform his music live.

Ken Watson followed in 2000 with A Little Chin Music, a CD-R with homemade artwork, but musically it has wider appeal than The Twinkle Factor . You could say that A Little Chin Music is the perfect halfway point between his classic first album Assembly and The Twinkle Factor, combining the melodic aspects of the former with the detail and precision of the latter.

Musically, Ken Watson has a strong emphasis on radical keyboard arrangements, with some of the most perplexing layering you can imagine, he also is an excellent guitarist, and apparently a fantastic producer/engineer. Of course working alone means he is using digital drums, but on this cd you wouldn't even notice, as you will be immersed in the songs depth and details, and he is using a very nice sounding drum programmer. One could easily listen to this and hear strong echoes of Happy the Man, Zappa, UK, & Shawn Lane.

It's sad that todays demands can take a major talent like Ken Watson, and keep him from persuing his calling as a musician, and fronting a band, but the silver lining is that todays technology and homestudio gear has allowed people like KW the opportunity to be creative and get heard. In summary, Ken has delivered three solid recordings thus far, and he remains dedicated and faithful to his progressive calling on each of these. The lovers of highly sophisticated, complex, and deep music will find Ken Watsons' music a great addition to their collections.

Ken Watson - Everything