Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
In the modern age it seems that to get close to someone, to understand them and take a deep interest in their lives is almost the same as reducing yourself down to the level of some scurrilous gossip magazine or even be seen as intrusive. Contact must be made between people if we are to avoid being creatures afraid to come out from behind a computer driven persona, too scared of allowing the mask and guise of personality created by a social media hash tag, citizens of every country must find a way to Get Close once more and be seen to be someone who inhabits reason and rationale.
Getting close is the aim of Geoff Carne and Mick Hatz, to re-establish the power, the plentiful feeling of electricity and near succulent chemistry that existed in their early career and to which thanks to Get Close plays out like two rekindled appreciators of their craft damning everything else and only paying attention to the truth that exists between them.
The Blues invariably will always find a way to infect a person’s psyche, like a favourite memory playing around in the back of the subconscious, it growls to be let loose and the rush to try to recreate it can lead a person down an unexpected route. It is the feeling of personal endorsement that comes across with gratitude and unending love as Geoff Carne and the Hatz produce some of the most interesting sections of music available and the finished result is one that captivates and expresses itself in a tremendous way.
With tracks such as Lost In You, the adeptly driven Another Piece Of Me, Who’s Fooling Who? and the exquisite Nine Miles To The Border, Geoff Carne and Mick Hatz find that the search for a type of reconnection is fulfilled, is graciously acknowledged and given meaning; it is meaning that the listener cannot fail to grasp and give their own thoughts to reconnect with a genre that may have allowed itself to pass them by once more.
Sweet, abiding and full of tantalising promise, Get Close finds a way into your heart and dwells a while, beating softly, beating with passion.
Geoff Carne and the Hatz’ Get Close is released on April 15th.
Ian D. Hall