Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
Without the story-teller, life is without its supply of imagination, without the musician, life is devoid of meaning; the combination of these two pursuits is more than a stream of passion that runs dry in times of exhausting, and parching, artistic drought, it is a mighty waterway, as bottomless as the eyes and ears can fathom, deep and never shallow but one that holds perhaps the unsolvable puzzle close to its soul; one that cannot even be gleaned unless the listener is prepared to jump in and seek the treasure to be found in the Deep Dark River.
From the outset, Morgan Rider’s Deep Dark River is a pilgrimage into the unknown, the Canadian heart at the very centre of the album is one that intrigues, one that has the nostrils twitching in the wildness of the experience, but one that understands that whilst the scenery is one shrouded by the shadow of the timber wolf sniffing the air in search of fresh blood, it is the soul of the Canadian nature that makes the experience charming, beautiful and positive.
Deep Dark River is by definition an album that has a mystery, but one that can be explored with positive curiosity, the deepness of the piece is captivating, earthly, pounding with the genes of sincerity, yet it is almost unfathomably great, it has a richness of spirit, and like the historic cities and upcoming town that straddle the great Ontario Lake, Toronto, Hamilton, Mississauga and Morgan Rider’s hometown of Bowmansville, frames the idea of change and the openness to explore beyond the perceived notion of what makes a Canadian, what makes a musician in these modern times.
It is in the willingness to go beyond, to strike out into the realm of narrative, rather than be tied by the desires of others that makes a person a hero, an individual, a character to take note of, and Morgan Rider is most certainly encompasses that demeanour of humility, of vastness and the sense of enormity.
In songs such as All Songs Fade, The Sorceress, the excellent The Gravestone & The Oak, Between Night and Day, the truth displayed in Pride in Withered Times and Farewell For Now, Morgan Rider displays more than a compelling nature, it is a rhythm that is in time with the beat of the forests, of the waters and the mixture of seclusion and the need to be involved with humanity.
A massive album, a punch of much needed realism to the senses, Deep Dark River is a passion.
Morgan Rider releases Deep Dark River on August 24th
Ian D. Hall