For those of you who thought that "The Sound of Silence" was a stupid name for a song that was, well – not silent, perhaps this album is not for you. The only thing that is silent about Andrew Taylor’s album, "The Silence" is Andrew Taylor’s (or anybody else’s) voice. There’s no singing involved. Instead, here we have eight tracks of pure unadulterated music without anything as cumbersome as lyrics or vocals getting in the way. These songs without words are heavily reliant on distorted guitars and a collection of synth sounds last heard on the soundtrack of an eighties TV series. Long, Long, Long There’s clearly a desire to enter the world of Prog Rock pretensions here. Tracks regularly outstay the usual three minute radio welcome in the best Prog Rock tradition. One track weighs in at seven minutes forty seconds long. There are some bizarre Prog Rocky titles too: "Destruction Reincarnate" and "Wonderfull [sic] for the Journey" are the most obvious. But there are also titles such as "Brittle Serenade" (what exactly is it that makes a serenade snap easily?) and "Dreams Are" (Dreams are what exactly?). It’s a Mystery One of the mysteries behind these track titles is that there is no indication as to what is meant by a "Brittle Serenade". There are no lyrics to help us, so we are left with a sprawling guitar solo that sounds much the same as the ones on any of the other seven tracks. There is, in another example, no particular hint of destruction on "Destruction Reincarnate" (surely there should be a couple of bangs and crashes at least). Instead, we have lift music for the electric guitar generation. Lyrics vs. No Lyrics I have, in the past, lamented bands who produce truly amazing pieces of instrumental only to spoil them by inserted a couple of verses and choruses around them to meet the traditional expectations of a "song". Here, the exact opposite is true. Andrew Taylor has here a collection of tracks that could be whittled down it to some great thematic ideas for songs. "Dreams Are" for example, is screaming out for a decent lyric to be written over the top of it. But as a purely instrumental number alone, and going on for such a length, its just not enough. Beyond Words The one exception – the one glorious, wonderful, gorgeous, splendid, so-magnificent-it’s-worth-getting-the whole–album-for-alone exception – is track seven: "Cannon in X". It’s a riotous interpretation of Pachelbel’s Cannon that would make even the most reserved person air guitar along to it. Pachelbel's Cannon is an ancient, ancient piece of classical music heard played on church organs the world over. But you’ll have heard it even if you’ve never darkened a church’s doorway in your life. Green Day – intentionally or otherwise - based the instrumental of "Basket Case" on it. More locally, Murdoc used it on their song "Time Out". Here, Taylor does something that surely Emmerson, Lake and Palmer or The Nice should have done while they were coming up with "Nutcracker Rock" or "Brandenburger". It’s a chaotic, giddying screech around the theme of Pachelbel’s original idea: simple yet brilliant. Very, very brilliant. Greater or Less than the Sum of its Parts? The end result for the album as a whole is something of an oddity. At its worst "The Silence" is bland, bland, bland, at it’s best it’s excellent – and then there’s the middle bit which, for the majority of the time is all right if you like that kind of thing. Right at the end of the album resides a hidden track where the weirdness of strange experimental electronica dwells. If Taylor dared to bring this forward to the main part of the album and experiment more openly, this would be truly progressive. It might even rock. | 
