What Colours The Sky In Your World by Nautilus

Initial rehearsals were productive, but Darryl had other commitments and was unable to continue. Andy and Paul decided to carry on and started working on the material that would eventyally form their debut album "What Colours The Sky In Your World?". From the start, they decided that the quirky material was strong enough to stand alone, without vocals, and that the band would be instrumental. Over the next year and a half they steadily built up a strong yet varied reportiore.

However, progress was hamperd by the frustrating difficulty in finding a rhythm section to take the music to the next level. After unsuccessfully trying out two bass playres and a drummer, they renunited with Darryl Finch in DEcember 2003, who agreed to help them record some material they had been working on for a demo/EP. At the same time and old freind of Paul's Rob Tyson was drafted in on bass on a simillar basis, rekindling a musical partnership that went back to 1987.

The Idea was to record a four track demo, but after the success of the initial session in January, which produced four tracks, Rob and Darryl were keen to be more involved in the project and became permanent members of the band. A further two sessions in the spring yeilded enough material for an album and single, which were released in October 2004.

The single couples two tunes. 'Garden gnomes' is a three part mini epic, encompassing funeral organs, country hoe downs and of course gnomes! couples with the off kilter sub hendrix blues of 'Dogs Dinner', it immediatley highlights the variety of influences; from David Bowie to Jimi Hendrix via Pink Floyd and King Crimson, Deep Purple and the Cardiacs.

The debut album however takes a turn into rather darker territory. Much of the music that Andy and Paul had put together was fractured and dissonant. Tracks such as 'Dorrs To The Darkl Room', 'Cabin Fever' and Halloween Factory' are intense nightmarish musical journeys that convet a sense of menace and despair; driven by Challinors dark and angular guitar and augmented by the varied sounds and textures provided by the keyboards. In turn these are off set by the down beat, mournfull numbers 'Release' and 'Ghosts In The Wind'; whilst 'Bastogne' and 'Precious Things', include jazz, blues and symphonic rock stylings.

Without vocals, the band's haunting, cinematic music speaks for itself and its questing, explorotory nature allows the listener to go wherever they wish to go.

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