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Magazine:
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MUSICIAN (December 2002) |
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Reviewer:
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Richard Ellis |
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John Hobson's Wireless (cover photo artfully shows a cutaway 24 fret Fylde
with a missing second string) covers related sonic territory [to previous review] -
Trio featuring John on guitars and samples, Rory McFarlane on basses and Chris Garrick on violin.
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Tunes are all original, mostly ballads, a blues - pleasant, comforting, and rewarding
as a glass of warmed mulled wine in your back garden on a cold winter's night.
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Some very good stuff here indeed.
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Maybe not as loud, colourful or fashionable as product to be found in your average
High Street record store. However, when that store is closed in due course, or becomes
a mobile phone shop selling "Greatest ringtones of the last 15 minutes", I'll still
whack Wireless into the CD and press the play button.
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Samples are used on the final track; Dena's Song wandering into more commercial new-age
rocky terrain, neo-Celtic sea-surf samples preceding rock ballad. On this he has a very
distinctive tone which recalls Pastorius' legato playing.
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Maybe that's why he needs the two octave fretboard. Not many of us ever get up the
"dusty end" of the fingerboard, as we used to say at the old Crouch End Banjo Bar.
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Magazine:
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MUSICIAN (June 1999) |
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Reviewer:
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Peter Fyfe |
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One good thing about having a keen interest in most kinds of music is that I enjoy
and appreciate a wide range of styles. So it was a pleasure to receive this recording of
John Hobson.
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As the saying goes... not quite folk ... (even though the performer's choice
of guitar is a Fylde, synonymous with a lot of folk musicians) but then again it crosses over
nicely into that branch of acoustic jazz that even folk musicians, and anyone else for that
matter, will enjoy.
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Beautifully played lead, with basic rhythm accompaniment occasionally backed by Rory
McFarlane's complimentary bass lines, this is an album that matures like a fine malt.
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