Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Dreams are important, they are our subconscious talking to us on levels that we only fathom when we embrace the complex reasons for our actions and those we wish to undertake. Dreams flow in directions that our sentient waking mind often represses, pushes away with agony of spirit that we which we truly wish to embrace, investigate, release, and like a river escape from the confines of the land on either side of us and return to the sea and the adventure that awaits in the unknown.

The River Of Dreams is that which can carry us forward, it is symbolic, it is eternal, and even in the midst of polluting thoughts and waste catching our rudders and oars, the river ebbs onwards, fluidly, as serenely as it can before the rough trade of existence engages with our soul and we are transported through winds and storms that lead eventually to another realm; hat in which we were meant to be.

For Geoff Carne & The Raw Rox Band, the river is unyielding, it is revealing, for whilst the conscious often refuses to understand that which is in plain sight, for as Carl Jung observed, “(Your) vision will become clear only when you into your own heart. Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes.” To be on either side of the river, to stand on an island in the middle and choose to jump in and swim for all your might shows your willingness to dream, and to feel, to acknowledge that you cand steer and be a passenger.

In an E.P. that is testament to the assuredness that Geoff Carne possesses, and in which he pays homage to his long-term musical partner Mike Hatz with his own vision enveloping the listener, the five tracks, Insanity, On Your Feet Boy!, Sunday Morning, Go Solo, and the title track River Of Dreams, the feeling of elation, of calm waters, of pushing through and surfacing to take a breath and filling the lungs with valuable air, is overwhelming and aspirational.

It is always special to find Geoff Carne holding aloft the life buoy and holding the ropes as we learn to navigate the waters ahead, and in The River Of Dreams E.P. the knowledge of adventure beyond is enough to immerse yourself completely within.

Ian D. Hall