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Blue Touch Paper: Blue Touch Paper: Stand Well Back
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Stand Well Back
Provocateur Records
2011
Based on his recent work, creating impressive big band tribute projects including Visions of MilesThe Electric Period of Miles Davis (In+Out, 2009) and John LennonIn My Own Write (Provocateur, 2011), it might be understandable to think of

Colin Towns
pianoThose unfamiliar with this aspect of Townsor just plain new to him, periodwill find plenty of revelations on Stand Well Back, the debut of Blue Touch Paper. An Anglo/German sextet formed in 2010, Blue Touch Paper reveals considerably more about Towns' roots than his big band projectsthough they have certainly spoken volumes. But Stand Well Backwhich features British saxophonist

Mark Lockheart
saxophone

Polar Bear
band / ensemble / orchestra
Sticking mostly to keyboards on this set of 13 self-penned originals, it's when he sings on the ethereal "Principal Dancer" that Towns' progressive roots are worn largest on his sleeve. Despite avoiding some of Peter Hammill's melodrama, there's something about Towns' articulation, his vibrato and his ability to suggest great import with the slightest inflection that bears comparison to the

Van der Graaf Generator
band / ensemble / orchestra
Pink Floyd
band / ensemble / orchestrab.1964

Joe Zawinul
keyboards1932 - 2007

No slouch on piano, either, Towns solos intriguingly beneathrather than overLockheart and Montague's dervish-like descending lines on "Crazy Man on Platform 13," segueing to a brief, overdriven and ring-modulated exchange with Greb and Maass, before settling into one of Lockheart's best tenor solos of the setand that's just the first half of this episodic, seven-minute song that also gives the drummer and percussionist some well-deserved solo space.
Stand Well Back couldn't work as well as it does without everyone in Blue Touch Paper possessing such powerful improvisational élan and collective listening skills. But at the core of the album is Towns himselfa composer who, by drawing on touchstones from across the musical spectrum, has created an album that isn't exactly fusion, but possesses some of its raw, electrified energy; and isn't exactly progressive rock, but demonstrates a similar penchant for detailed, episodic compositional form, though without some of its intrinsic bombast. If it absolutely must be categorized, then it's unequivocally a jazz record, but one whose connection is tenuous, and based more on the genre's general willingness to be inclusionary rather than exclusionary.

Tracks: Blue Touch Paper; Crazy Man on Platform 13; Say What You Mean; The Forbidden Dance; Another Time, Another Place; Lost for Words; Stand Well Back/Spit It Out; Ducking and Diving; One Eye on the Clock; Principal Dancer; Walls Have Ears; Transcending; This Could Run.
Personnel: Colin Towns: keyboards, voice; Chris Montague: guitars; Edward MacLean: bass; Benny Greb: drums; Stephan Maass: percussion; Mark Lockheart: tenor and soprano saxophones, bass clarinet.
Photo Credit
Courtesy of Provocateur Records ">
Track Listing
Blue Touch Paper; Crazy Man on Platform 13; Say What You Mean; The Forbidden Dance; Another Time, Another Place; Lost for Words; Stand Well Back/Spit It Out; Ducking and Diving; One Eye on the Clock; Principal Dancer; Walls Have Ears; Transcending; This Could Run.
Personnel
Blue Touch Paper
band / ensemble / orchestraColin Towns: keyboards, voice; Chris Montague: guitars; Edward MacLean: bass; Benny Greb: drums; Stephan Maass: percussion; Mark Lockheart: tenor and soprano saxophones, bass clarinet.
Album information
Title: Blue Touch Paper: Stand Well Back | Year Released: 2011 | Record Label: Provocateur Records
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About Blue Touch Paper
Instrument: Band / ensemble / orchestra
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