The Quarter Sessions

What a great concept of legitimate musical plagiarism this is. Devised and staged by multi-talented Dave Draper, seven vocalists were independently given the same piece of music to take away and write lyrics and melodies to. Each of the six works and its creator(s) is introduced by electronically synthesised voice over the intro before their version kicks in and the result is an uplifting piece or originality. Each vocalist took away their individual 'baby' to be included on their own solo works.

The main theme of the concept piece is a typically crashing, chord laden work, dare I say, slightly Evanescence-esque rocker. The six individual variations on the theme are remarkably and markedly dissimilar considering they all share the same main musical root. So with The Quarter Sessions we hear and feel the styles and passions of Emma Howett's 'Above Street Level', Mel (Daysinruins) Korba's 'Mile Ahead Of Me', Bel (ex Volta) Pedro's 'Sensation Centres', Jenni (Girlfriday) Cox's 'Take The Pace', Oly (Rictus) Edkins' 'Talking Out Of Turn' and finally Stu (ex Huron) Lister and Max (Quarterblind) Ward's 'Debasing All'. Each vocalist puts their own stamp on the piece and each, in turn, makes a genre and lyrical statement. There's not a bad variation to be heard but most impressive to me is the thunderously powerful and raucous version six, 'Debasing All' with its awesome vocal duets.

The Quarter Sessions is a pretty neat idea which seems to have worked out very nicely indeed - as a concept and for the individual participants. It took several months for Dave Draper to pull the individual versions together from original concept thro' recording, engineering and final mastering. The Quarter Sessions is a innovative and impressive piece of contemporary musical experimentation.

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