Album Notes

Phideaux is back, heavier than ever, with a rock album of angry, scary, paranoid songs about life in an increasingly totalitarian society. Named after one of Chairman Mao's catastrophic campaigns, "The Great Leap" is part one of a conceptual trilogy [Part two "Doomsday Afternoon" is scheduled for spring 2007]. In terms of the music on "The Great Leap", electric guitar is the order of the day. The psychedelic production values are still abundant, but this album is based on more riff driven songs and has much in common with the second Phideaux album "Ghost Story". We hope you will enjoy this new sound Phideaux and that the sleek simple anthems will whet your whistle for the extended symphonic epic we have planned for "Doomsday Afternoon". This is the yin to that album's yang. If you like intricate music with great melodies, some cool instruments, and a subversive message, come with us and take the leap... The Great Leap. Here are extracts of some reviews... "This is the coolest record of all the ones that I received to review in the last month. I am hooked on their sound and songs! ... Phideaux is an amazing songwriter and has a great voice and is very expressive with the cool lyrics. I would go through all the songs but some that really blew me away were You And Me Against a World of Pain, which I have heard 25 times in the last couple of weeks. Why can't this be the huge hit on the radio instead of the crap we get out there?? This is real music." -Scott Heller: Aural Innovations #35 - Jan. 2007 (www.aural-innovations.com) "In a truly just world, this would be the kind of music that scholars would dissect and analyze fifty years from now. This is "The Wall" for the twenty-first century... As Phideaux sings on “Tannis Root,” “Give us your best and your bold / We’ll give them back when they’re cold” – The Great Leap takes an unblinking and harsh look at the world, and it’s not pretty. But the music is brilliant; this is the CD of the year, as far as I’m concerned." -Duke Egbert: The Daily Vault (dailyvault.com) "I love the CD - it's like the very best prog albums in that it's one which rewards the repeated listener. Each play reveals more depth, instrumentation and subtle joys. In addition, it has the eerie feel and the sombre, dark mood which I love so much in Roger Waters. Is Phideaux the progressive genius of this generation ? Damn right in my opinion :-)" -Grant Mason: Three From Leith podcast (member of the Scottish Podcast Clan) "Thx a lot for sending me "The Great Leap". It´s a thrilling piece of music! And to be honest, in my opinion it´s another step forward for you. And it´s my album of the month..:-)...so next show i´ll play more!" -Michael Gruber: www.forbidden-planet.net "...not a traditional type of prog. Instead this is more of the moody prog style that is created by Marillion, Blackfield and others. Not all the inspiration on this comes from prog either. You might hear Gary Numan on this or early David Bowie. Still, there are also elements of Pink Floyd and others here. The result is a unique musical texture that conveys emotions and power quite well. I really like this album (and all of Phideaux’s discs) a lot." -Gary Hill: MusicStreetJournal.com "In my review of Fiendish two years ago, I wrote "the album is very eclectic with a seemingly bizarre mixture of psychedelic, folk, space rock and prog". Four albums on I could write something very similar about The Great Leap and yet there is a world of difference between these albums. I also wrote that the album was "a very fine effort by a very talented individual". That statement stands true as well but at the time I could not have imagined the breadth of Phideaux's (the man and the group) musical ambition. That they can have produced five albums all of which are different from each other and all of which have gained a DPRP recommendation says something about the consistency, the quality and the sheer enjoyment that e