“Gil Gilad was formed in County Durham, UK, in 1979 by university students interested in long-form music. The original members went their separate ways sometime after 1981. Three of the original members (Paul Dobson, Kev Stevens, and Nev Tobin) started writing music again starting around 2015 when the band made its appearance with a Facebook page sharing tracks from Soundcloud. After many years, the band finally released its debut album in 2024 titled ‘A Record of the Unworldly and the Strange’ inspired by entrepreneur and chemist John Walker. The current line-up as of December 2025 is Paul Dobson (guitars, keyboards, backing vocals), Nev Tobin (lead vocals, keyboards), Kev Stevens (drums, keyboards, guitar, backing vocals), and Geoff Parkin (lead guitar, backing vocals)”. This is the second chapter in the Walker saga, and as such, the band take us on a sweeping 70-minute sonic adventure, with nods and winks to a series of classic British writers as well as harkening back at classics like Jeff Wayne’s War of the Worlds.
HG Wells is the ignition for the opener “Prisoners of Time”, a prototypical neo-prog track that features all the instrumentalists showing off their wares, blitzing synthesizer and keyboard runs, solid bass underfoot, concrete drum propellants and Nev Tobin’s rather attractive vocal tone and delivery. ‘We all have time machines…those that take us back are memories and those that carry us forward are dreams.’
Up next under the auspices of philosopher, logician, mathematician Bertrand Russell “We Are Scientists Not Philosophers” selects a lighter approach to complex thought based on ‘Science is what you know. Philosophy is what you don’t know’. Here the tempo is first leisurely and playful, with a sudden plunge into darker spheres where the austere narration challenges the weakness of mind. The rhythmic piano is maddeningly efficient, as it sits front and center, its ivory keys glowing brightly. There is a definite art-rock slant, perhaps winking at bands like 10cc or even Alan Parsons Project.
“The Traveller: Altered Destiny” has theoretical physicist Charles Peacock as an influence, and musically, the APP hint comes across luminously, swirling keyboard setting the foundation on which basic bass and drum stakes are planted
‘We explore the vagaries of time; Parallel worlds where everything happens in tandem with everything else. However, our minds are ill-disposed to extract the truth behind the thin veils that blind us.’ An exuberant electronic prog workout that offers a most attractive plane to enjoy, melodically powerful, yet accessible, full of thrilling spills. There is an 80s electro feel to the vocals which are extremely attractive, as it comes across well with all the backing mellotrons, a fascinating track to be sure!
John Walker speaking of his loss of Hai-Yun is expressed on “A Chance to Speak” , a short two-minute waver, dispensing a very elegant British sound, focused on piano and aery vocals. ‘I last saw her on the outskirts of Durham…How she danced on those silken, silver threads I will never know: She was elegance and strength, and light as floating feathers…’.
A proggier trio of tracks form the middle core of this release, and my favourite section , first up “The Watchers”, owner of a cinematic slice of imaginary sights and sounds, caught in a lush whirlwind, immediately attractive with a strong melodic spine and dramatic vocals that include amazing, hushed backing vocals and effects galore. ‘The primary objective of a Watcher is to ensure the safety and security of the community, by whatever means necessary within the limits of the primary directive set out in Principles of Service’. This track could have ben a segue to APP’s I Robot masterpiece “The Voice”. Next of kin, “Escape from York” possesses a cosmic urgency that felt like running from the devil. Hurried, panting and awesome electronics make this cascading piece of energy most compelling. The looping bass finale a killer. ‘We need to go, or you will not live out the hour!’ . Who else but the perennial JRR Tolkien as inspiration on a Kate Bush-like vocal to die for on “A Walk in the Woods” (6:14), a stylistically dynamic tour de force, showing intense attention to mood and atmosphere, a comfortable sense of freedom of pace, even though engulfed in the mysterious solitude of nature. ‘I thought all the trees were whispering to each other, passing news and plots along in an unintelligible language; and the branches swayed and groped without any wind.’ The loving screech of Geoff Parkin’s electric guitar does the piece justice. A definite highlight.
A welcome return to “Dreams of Samira” channels a page from Percy Byshe Shelley’s Love’s Philosophy, recalling German band RPWL in terms of style and structure, keyboard and rhythm section heavy, sliced open by a bitter guitar recollection, weaving expertly with a companion synthesizer expression, piano and mellotron to finish off. ‘Nothing in the world is single, All things by a law divine. In one spirit meet and mingle. Why not I with thine?’
On the two next thrilling pieces, William Gibson the American-Canadian writer (“Neuromancer”) provides the essence for the more experimental “The Burghers”, a clanging glance into the impending fate of mankind, based on sociological conflicts that are now a global spectacle. Cyberpunk rebellion of yore now transforming itself into internet anarchy. ‘The future has already arrived; it’s just not evenly distributed yet’. Musically, it’s a deliberate ball of confusing distortions, oblique settings and a desperately gloomy finale. “Before Today is Yesterday” suggests too many voices in our heads, forming a dangerously growing series of phenomena as insomnia, depression and data fatigue. No time left for yesterday’s reality, only tomorrow’s incertitude. Opinion-peddling rules the day. ‘And we danced on the brink of an unknown future, to an echo from a vanished past’.
Nev Tobin stars on the grim “Darkened Embers of Suspicion” has a slight Kashmir-ian aura (the Led Zep version , not the disputed region!), a brooding snarl of reflection, the result of the previous discussed tracks, focusing on endless negatives, eschewing whatever progressive good has been achieved on so many levels. Negativity sells.
‘In the wastelands of memory, our past haunts us when all is dark and rested. We become robed in lost moments, and half remembered phrases that twist and torment’.
The pleasantly lilting “The Strange Long Night” hides an underlying message of disbelief
‘Believe what? That tomorrow night beneath the full moon, I’ll sprout hair and fangs and eat people? It’s bulls**t!’. The piece is somewhat dark, quirky and oblique, the way an odd lengthy evening may easily become. What better segue than the tempestuous fury of “The Storm”, a six-minute+ tornado of sound with raging synths, howling gales of mellotron, booming bass curvatures and tectonic drum patterns that will stimulate the blood flow. ‘Batten down and lock up! Sound the alarm! Storm coming!’. A relentless pummeling can do wonders for the energy levels, lest we forget that Mother Nature can be cruel to be kind, in the right measure.
The 70-minute opus finalizes its run on “The Nature of Time”, a hint from William Wordsworth’s “Composed During a Storm”, showing abundantly the painstaking details marshaled by the band in maintaining flow, thematically as well as infusing sufficient musical variety to keep the headphones on, all along the adventure. “He raised his eye Soul-smitten; for, that instant, did appear large space (‘mid dreadful clouds) of purest sky, An azure disc, shield of Tranquillity; Invisible, unlooked-for, minister of providential goodness ever nigh!”. A solitary two-note piano puts this to bed effortlessly.
An excellent album, that caught me quite by surprise, as the first audition had not grabbed me completely. By the second, it was hook, line and sinker. Bravo, lads , well played!
4.5 whiskey sours.