Drowing Not Waving - Look At It This Way

Panic Stations
Drowning Not Waving
Waiting For The Rain
I Used To Be...
Hell's Heart
Not Dead Yet
Crying Blood
Caution: Abnormal Geometry
Backwards In The Fast Lane
The Dark Side Of Your Smile
Alexander's Sigh

Producer: Hill McKin
Year: 1997
Total Playing Time: 57:41 m:s

DNW are Andy Bassett and Roy Mcloed, both of whom were in a band called Big Chill who released an album on MFN in 1992. This independent release sees the guys have another shot at the big time.

Panic Stations starts matters off well and sounds kinda like It Bites' Calling All The Heros with a hard rock attitude.

DNW is a lumbering slice of rock that sounds like Def Leppard in a bad mood. For some bizarre reason the vocals remind me of Tears For Fears.

Third song in and we get a 8:14 epic. Featuring a nifty bassline, this song easily steals the show and is the standout track on the album. As with the previous 2 tracks, the band seem to have created a thoroughly modern rock sound. It's a combination of 80's pop meets melodic hard rock. They even manage to pull off the long track business, because I'm certainly not clock watching when listening to this.

On I Used To Be the pace slows down. The song does improve toward the end, but it takes too long getting going. The first few times I listened to the album my interest started to decline after track 3, writing the rest of the album off as average British hard rock. A few more listens & I think that this was probably at bit harsh. It's simply the case that rest of the album is overshadowed by the opening tracks.

Hell's Heart adopts a blues flavour. A 80's synth bass and drum pattern introduces Not Dead Yet. The blues swing of the acoustic Crying Blood will have your finger's clicking, before the electric part kicks in.

If I tell you that mainman Andy Bassett is also a guitarist then you probably won't be too surprised that a song with a title like Caution: Abnormal Geometry is an instrumental. The guitar sails over a synth strings and piano backing. Unlike most instrumentals I usually sit this one through to the end.

The next couple of songs, Backwards In The Fast Lane and The Dark Side Of Your Smile, are hard rock. Closing track, Alexander's Sigh, is a ballad and I assume that Andy's son was the inspiration.

I really like the opening trio and I'm certain that I'll play this album for these tracks alone. These are also the most recent tracks the band have written, so the future looks good for DNW. Next time, and I'm convinced there should be a next time, more Drowning Not Waving/Waiting For The Rain style material would be very welcome.

Rating: 7

This independent release is available via mail order:

- Cheques for £12.00, made payable to Andrew Bassett,

Drowning Not Waving,
Andy Bassett,
156, Loxley Road,
Malin Bridge,
Sheffield, 
South Yorkshire,
S6 4TE,
United Kingdom.

To find out more, email Andy at a.h.bassett@sheffield.ac.uk

Or, check out the DNW web site: http://ds.dial.pipex.com/town/road/xmk67/dnw.html