Think a little early Yes (the brilliantly inventive 'Let Go Your Course'), a little early Camel ('Apollo 1620' and 'Slingshot') and maybe a little early Genesis (at various places in the album) and then, if you are familiar with the classic progressive rock music of Fonya think of that and not of those illustrious predecessors I mentioned. For Centric Jones is none other than Chris Fournier, bass player also revealed as a guitarist of some aplomb on the memorable 5 minute title track (albeit some of the guitar sounds keyboard generated!) The arrangement on the beautiful ballad 'Island in the Sky' is also a real ear catcher with a 'harmonica' sounds and some male 'voices' adding just the right atmosphere to the acoustic guitar melody. In fact the quality of the music is consistent over the 55 minutes and 11 tracks and the 'unplugged' reprise of the title track is a nice touch at the end.
Let's go back to the beginning though and two rhythmically dynamic openers taking the symphonic route with synth 'fanfares', soft 'flutes' and 'voices' and enough variation in the guitar and bass to keep the most avid progressive rock fan well occupied! 'New Dawn' marks the first appearance of vocalist Dale Degen- his contribution here is actually more 'monastic chant' than singing, just right for this track- the organ early on reminds me of Hugh Banton and there's nice interplay between organ and guitar throughout a very interesting 2:40. The music rewards repeated listening as, gradually, the onion is peeled (Sorry about the analogy- it's the best I can think of at short notice!)
Centric Jones captures the pioneering spirit of early 70s progressive rock music perfectly and 'Phase Rotator Retard' goes down in my book as one of the most significant releases of 2002.