Nick Fletcher - Cycles Of Behaviour
Nick Fletcher
Cycles Of Behaviour
9/10
By Decibel Report - May 24, 2021
It’s not often an album stops you dead in your tracks and not once but eight times at that. To apply the adage ‘if one is to borrow, then borrow from the best’ to this deeply impressive album would be doing Nick Fletcher’s monumental individual talents a disservice. Yet the distinctive influences of Allan Holdsworth and Steve Hackett entwining themselves around the core of this sumptuous, entrancing, and beautifully constructed album do play an influential role.
It's an album that wilfully captures the senses with its adventurous blend of progressive jazz fusion. There’s also a multitude of playful nods here and there for those already initiated into the majestic mysteries of the prog-jazz fusion idioms.
Comprised from an overspill of stellar ideas from his previous recording with John Hackett - Beyond The Stars - Cycles Of Behaviour ventures further on a similar musical journey with surprising stylistic detours.
This meticulously sculpted album begins with the uplifting title track and its heady jazz fusion notation where all players take dramatic turns to blow. A catchy high register riff blending beautifully with John Hackett’s strong vocal follows on The Heat Is Rising and is a welcome addition to the psychic jukebox with Fletcher channelling an Allan Holdsworth display of supreme musicianship.
It’s not only the elite level of musicianship that impresses but also the compositional qualities of the songs encasing the varied skillsets on show that shines brightly throughout. The sublime rarified air breathing life into the wondrous Hope In Your Eyes again melds distinctive influences shaping much-loved sounds into different forms. Viewed from another perspective, John Hackett’s brother Steve enters the soundscape in spirit only as Fletcher and his ensemble pay their musical tributes.
Things really begin to hot up with a hefty riff plus searing solos, and contrasting serene interludes, on Tyrant And Knave as Fletcher’s tonal quality is like a blaze of light skittering across his guitar fretboard as he captures lightning in a bottle on this electrifying track. His superb ensemble of musicians also stretches out to Mahavishnu/Return To Forever heights of individual musicianship.
Further catchy guitar, flute and vocal themes return on Interconnected; a song that revels and glories in its pulsating beaty feel. Startling melodious runs of instrumentation also combine with transcendent tempo changes to keep the listener's brain on the move.
Revealing his learned classical guitar background, Fletcher and John Hackett deceive the ear with a pastoral passage before all hell is let loose with a knee-trembling shock and awe slab of riffing and dramatic stabs of keyboards on Annexation.
The rich recipe of musical ingredients on this absorbing album reaches its fitting apogee with the precision-tooled intricacies on the final track The Philosopher King. This epic composition alloys dreamy guitar motifs to early Genesis musical quirkiness and adventures in sound creating an overwhelming dramatic effect.
Hats off to Nick Fletcher who has taken his musical explorations to an entirely new level as his plentiful silky tics of guitar licks exposes an artist of serious magnitude on the cusp of a wider discovery on this magnificently constructed set of excellent songs. Special mention must be made of his fellow players the aforementioned John Hackett, Dave Bainbridge, Tim Harries, Russ Wilson, and co-producer Caroline Bennett who have combined to execute a milestone recording and one of which, I suspect, they will endeavour to better on their quest to musical excellence and beyond.
