Unsigned: Mark Glover, Hustle - album review
“A big mission of mine was to get the euphonium out to new audiences,” says much-travelled Wordsley boy Mark Glover in the sleeve notes to this, his debut record.
“I had a crazy thought that one day I would record some of this music and after a lot of hard work, time, money, patience and belief, Hustle is the result.”
Hustle consists of 12 tracks of both classical and contemporary brass-led music. Mark, aged 38, and his euphonium star of course, while backing is expertly provided by Bulgarian piano maestro Doctor Viktoriya Zaharieva.
If you love classical music this should be right up your alley, and how you feel about the record in general will probably stem from whether you do and don’t.
But that doesn’t mean we have something that solely belongs in the stuffy music halls of the rich. Mark, who is married with a four-year-old daughter, is a music teacher by trade and he will want to bring a whole new generation of young musicians round to the instrument.
His journey has taken him to Dubai via Singapore to spread the power of the euphonium, and the former Tividale Comprehensive School pupil who learnt to play with Sandwell Youth Music can finally realise his dream.
There are some nice reworkings of classical movements. Their version of Gabriel Faure’s Pavane is heartfelt and sweet, tinged with sadness, as it provides both a hopeful wish for summer to come as well as a mournful look back at loves lost. Kids – Little Mix themselves sampled this on 2013 hit Little Me you know.
There is also something mournful in Mark’s cover of Albert Ketelbey’s Bells Across The Meadow. Recorded with the help of a handbell ensemble it carries the feel of a music box playing out the end of somebody’s life.
Then we have the chase scene feel of Stephen Lloyd Gonzales’ Euphtude. It’s like Catch Me If You Can all over again with the frenetic notes of Glover’s instrument holding you all by themselves. No mean feat over a four-minute-plus period.
Not everything will speak to people with the same magnitude. Much like the February release from cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason, your experience of and love for classical will determine your full feelings for this. But there is enough here to make the lite listeners enjoy it, even if some of the more technical pieces waft overhead.
Rating: 6/10
