(Progressive Rock/Canterbury) Ken Watson - Assembly - 1993, 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.

From www.kinesiscd.com:

Ken Watson was born in 1960 and started playing guitar around the age of 9 or 10, taking lessons from an excellent guitarist named Shawn Foster who played many different styles (classical, flamenco, folk, jazz) on a nylon-string guitar using classical guitar techniques. As he grew older, Ken gravitated toward rock and the electric guitar, and began to play in high school rock bands. At this time, he was listening to The Beatles, Grand Funk, Yes, Focus, and whatever else was popular in the early 1970’s. He also began to play the saxophone in the school concert/marching band, a skill now since lost.

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 - "Assembly" (Kinesis KDCD 1010, 1985/1994, CD)
Originally released independently in 1985, Watson's home-brew project with its black and white low-budget cover has stood the test of time, and has now been reissued, with bonus tracks, on the Kinesis label. This is smokin' hot, folks - the kind of music they don't make much of anymore; in it one can hear elements of fusion, the ECM sound, progressive rock, and funk. Watson plays guitar, keyboards and percussion, with Dave Webb adding drums (Craig Riches on the bonus tracks), and other guests adding occasional bass, piano and keys. As a guitarist, his style might fall somewhere between Goodsall and Steve Morse, but in fact Watson (and this album) reminds me more of another equally obscure American guitarist, Tony Palkovic, than either of the aforementioned two. Compositionally, this is rich, full of drama and emotion, with plenty of stylistic flair.

The album begins in a more or less fusion style ("Skeletons in Armor") and quickly builds upon this ("Next-X") adding more depth of style, culminating with the five-part title track, full of fury and unexpected changes. Then all changes with "Yuppie Jazz", a totally programmed synth track written by engineer Terry Morgan, save the drums added by Webb and a bit of Watson's guitarwork at the end. Things then get back on track and we continue the ascension into what may be the best two tracks: "Beating Swords into Plowshares" and "Elroy's Poem", two prog-rock opuses with strong fusion overtones. These two tracks alone are worth the cost of the disc. And here is where the original LP ended...and the twenty minutes of CD bonus material begins! Three additional tracks recorded between 1988 and 93, that further develop and expand upon the styles from the album proper, with even greater instrumental and compositional variety. These are a real treat, especially the eleven minute "Next X, Part Two"!

From www.kinesiscd.com:

Assembly is the CD reissue of the sole LP by Ken Watson, an album that, if not quite legendary, was certainly special to those tuned into the underground progressive rock scene in the mid-1980’s. To this is added 20-minutes of superb new material. Ken Watson is a guitarist who released this album himself in 1985 in micro-quantity. He’s joined by other musicians on keyboards, bass, and drums for an all-instrumental effort of progressive rock with a fusion edge. The music is rooted in the 1970’s tradition, with that same feel in the arrangements and musical dynamics, while not strongly resembling any one band. One might describe Assembly as a mixture of Happy the Man, the Dixie Dregs, and Bruford. It will also appeal to fans of artists such as Kenso, Pekka Pohjola, SBB, and Samla Mammas Manna. The new material has a darker element recalling Univers Zero in places. France’s Harmonie magazine named Assembly one of the top ten American progressive albums of all time!

Ken Watson - Guitars, Keyboards, Percussion
David Webb - Drums (1-6)
Craig Riches - Drums (7-9)
Buddy Stewart - Bass (1)
Greg McPherson - Piano (3 - part 2)
Terry Morgan - Keyboards (3 - parts 2,3; 4)