Visions of a Runic

Just two guys playing acoustic guitar through repeating thematics, ascending and descending chord play, lyrics revolving around X-Gen wastrel neo-hippie pursuits, Jam With Robina is a playfully mellow disportation somewhat in ye olde flower power mode. Vaguely Hawaiian in its laidback approach, the CD is street buskerly, occasionally dotted with a few leads but mostly homogenously performed. Vocal harmonies dominate, almost no separate vocals exist, and Romano Marenghi and Mark Tambini hail from Wales, where the jam concept found one of its first expressions with the Man band (please picture the critic genuflecting to a copy of Man's Be Good To Yourself at Least Once a Day), but these guys aren't jamming in that sense at all. Little or no improv exists and the atmosphere's sunny and light, rather than the brisk and complex trade-offs and engaging duels Man was famous for. Goofy, ditzy, tra la la, the tracking acoustic guitars are pretty tight, but...well, frankly, I'm not sure what to make of this. Perhaps if I had a tab of Xtasy and a quaalude or two…

Track List:

Edited by: David N. Pyles
(dnpyles@acousticmusic.com)