DRAKE, BOB - The Gardens Of Beastly Manor

"A one-off release of extraordinary instrumental compositions, through-composed and performed by a massed orchestra of Bob on piano, 5-string resonator banjo, Farfisa organ, Korg MS20 synthesizer, electric and acoustic guitars, recorders, drums, bass, chromatic hand-bells, trombone, trumpet and violin. 22 exquisite, enigmatic and compressed vignettes that defy comparison. It's a new departure for Bob, though the mixture of complexity, simplicity, virtuosity and dramaturgy remain the same. It's a release that will reward repeated listening. Bob Drake (b.1957) has played a lot of instruments with -- and has engineered -- all manner of bands, from the early 1970's on. Between 1978-1989 he played an important role in Denver's underground music scene, and was a founding member of both Thinking Plague and Hail. In the early 1990s, when he was living in Los Angeles, he wound up engineering sessions with just about everybody from Ice Cube to Shirley MacLaine." - Rer Megacorp.