Aswad Reviews -
Thanks to Steve Blake for sending a CD of his new Black Friday album. It took me 4 spins to wrap my head around this sucker (that's a good thing).
Progheads step right this way. Steve hits all the marks for compositional gymnastics and thematic twists and turns. Outstanding guitar work.
Some of it brought to mind Yes as a whimsical RIO/avant-prog band, if you can imagine that analogy. I like the tasty acoustic passages and
beautiful dissonance, but there's plenty of intensity too. King Crimson is an obvious influence, including some 'Larks' Tongues in Aspic' riffage,
though Steve takes it all in mightily interesting directions. BIG thanks to Bret Harold Hart for sending Steve my way.
I've only heard Steve's music once before, back in 2002 when I wrote an article about Bret Hart's free-improv 'Duets' series for
Aural Innovations. Just for fun I also put a link to the article in the Comments. It's still one of my favorites of anything I wrote over 18 years of publishing AI.
Jerry Kranitz

Black Friday was a great album. I liked the drums and cymbal fills on I believe the second to last song.
Some sounded like a Yes album which was impressive. It was a great journey.
Nicholas Cozzins