Robert Reed and Steve Balsamo’s progressive electronic duo Chimpan A recently released their long-awaited third album, Music Is Art – Vol. 1. Featuring original material and some surprising cover versions, the double- length record also includes a host of impressive musical guests. The pair discuss making big-sounding songs, fanboy moments in the studio and their plans to spend more time on their start-stop side-project.
“If it feels like 15 minutes, you’ve failed!” is Robert Reed’s explanation of how he and Steve Balsamo turned what seemed like three-minute pop songs into more expansive pieces.
Music Is Art – Vol 1 is the long-fermenting fruit of Chimpan A, the on-and-off project maintained by the pair for over two decades. Following 2020’s The Empathy Machine, Reed (best known for his stewardship of Magenta) and Balsamo (who previously worked with Deep Purple’s Jon Lord and The Alan Parsons Project’s Eric Woolfson) have created an album’s worth of original material, then backed it with another set of inventively-tackled cover versions.
The sound can best very loosely be described as progressive pop, weaving in style between, soul, trip-hop, folk, rock and musical theatre. For Reed, the lack of rules is what makes it progressive. “Making prog sound like Genesis – that’s surely going backwards,” Reed argues.
“Chimpan A have a pretty unique sound; it’s four to the floor then the next minute you’re getting into a folk tune, then you’ve got a spoken-word passage, a touch of gospel, a little bit of opera – for me, it’s truly progressive to do that.”
Still, the new songs share characteristics. They’re shot through with rich melodic allure and dramatic dynamics. I Will Wait For You ebbs and flows, spiralling from epic soul into brooding drum’n’bass, then breaking down to a spoken meditation before rebuilding via anthemic rock.
Reed confirms that Chimpan A is a vehicle with which he and Balsamo can go in any direction that suits them. “We didn’t have any rules for this record, whereas I don’t think I’d be so bold doing a Magenta record,” he says. “It’s always been a little safe space for us, away from the chaos of the industry.”
Balsamo explains: “It was always our intention to do more of this, but life got in the way. There were 15 years between the first album and the second. In between I sang on Rob’s Sanctuary albums and on a couple of projects with Magenta. He’s worked with me on various bits and pieces. We kept meeting in various little musical projects and saying, ‘Shall we have another crack at the Chimp?’ That led to The Empathy Machine, which we absolutely love.”
The impetus to follow it with the new album was heightened by the duo’s friendship with playwright Richard Mylan. “He’s a really good guy, and he loved the first couple of Chimp albums, so he asked us to write some stuff for his play Sorter. Those three songs make up the second half of the album, and when we came to record them, we used some of the words from the play.”
Vocal turns from regular singer Kirstie Roberts further colour the sound, alongside contributions from Magenta’s Christina Booth. “It definitely makes your ears prick up; I like Kirstie’s voice juxtaposed against mine,” says Balsamo, “then complemented by Tina’s voice, which is more ethereal.”
The spoken-word sections come courtesy of poet and regular Chimpan A contributor Tony Dallas. “Tony took the lyrics that we had and then kind of riffed off that and did his own thing,” says Balsamo. “And, man, it gives me shivers.”
There’s also an impressive orchestral presence, arranged by Nigel Hopkins and partly inspired by the environment in which the pair created the album. “On the drive from where I live in Swansea to Rob’s studio in Porth, I go through Aberdare and across the Maerdy Mountain,” says Balsamo. “That landscape made it such a therapeutic journey. It’s got a weird proggy 70s album-cover look to it. So all that got distilled into the music.
“We’re fans of Craig Armstrong’s work with Massive Attack and Paul Buchanan of The Blue Nile. We’re just trying to do our version of it, really. With the first album, Q magazine said it was ‘drowning in a sea of pretentiousness.’ We loved it! We used that to sell the album!”
MIA – Vol. 1 comes with a bonus disc of cover versions. The first to be released was Chimpan A’s take on Peter Gabriel’s Here Comes The Flood, which the lifelong fans approached with no small amount of trepidation. “We knew we were messing with prog royalty,” says Reed. “It could have been us painting a moustache on the Mona Lisa. But I don’t think we’ve done that; I think we’ve just framed it a little differently.”
A guy we work with sent our version to one of the songwriters. We haven’t heard back. But we also haven’t had any contact from any lawyers
Steve Balsamo
They were more audacious with their treatment of Carole King’s Smackwater Jack, reimagined as a slower, more despondent affair than the original’s piano boogie. Hot Chocolate’s Every 1’s A Winner sees its central guitar riff reworked into a synth figure. Perhaps most intriguingly of all, The Hollies’ The Air That I Breathe has a key change from major to minor, giving the famous soaring chorus a rather more hesitant feel.
“We set up the lovely verse – which Radiohead got done for supposedly stealing – but the chorus never gave that sort of Chimpan A dark feel,” Reed says. “I thought, ‘What happens if you go to the minor?’ The chorus is really joyous on the original, and we went, ‘Let’s darken it.’ And that was the way into the track.”
“A guy we work with has a contact with Albert Hammond, one of the song’s writers,” Balsamo says. “He sent it to Albert. We haven’t heard back. But we also haven’t had any contact from any lawyers – so I think that’s a positive sign!”
There were such concerns with the sample of Tubular Bells by Reed’s hero Mike Oldfield, which is included on a new mix of Chimpan A’s 2006 track The Secret Wish, this time featuring Kirstie Roberts on vocals.“Back then we had to write to him and go around the houses to make sure we didn’t get sued, and eventually we got clearance,” says Reed. “This time I thought, ‘Let’s try putting Kirstie on the end of the track to take you through the roof.’ I think we got it right.”
It’s the storytelling when we’re doing the sessions – I just let Guy Pratt crack on. I’m such a fanboy
Rob Reed
Further came with percussion from guest player Ged Lynch (percussionist for Peter Gabriel, David Gilmour, Brian Eno et al), bass from Guy Pratt (you name ’em...) and Neil Fairclough (Queen + Adam Lambert) and guitar work from Francis Dunnery (It Bites) and Neil Taylor (Tears For Fears).
For Reed and Balsamo, there’s an old-fashioned social element to getting old pals involved. “Spending time with Guy Pratt, who’s played on everything – Dave Gilmour and all the Pink Floyd stuff – it’s the storytelling when we’re doing the sessions which I love,” Reed says. I just let him crack on and tell us all the tales. I’m such a fanboy, which is one reason we got Ged Lynch, who played with Gabriel for six or seven years.
“Francis Dunnery played an incredible solo, and then with Neil Taylor – we’re massive Tears For Fears fans – we went to his house and did the sessions in his kitchen. We played the track and he played the first thing that came into his head. It’s just a lovely vibe. We cast the Chimpan A spell on them; they’re in there for ever now!”
Whether or not Chimpan A will turn into more than a labour of love for Reed and Balsamo (and friends) remains to be seen; you sense that they’re not fussed about how much commercial traction it gets. Nonetheless, they’re hoping it’ll become more than just a studio project.
“We’re trying to work out how to make it sound authentic live,” says Balsamo, “It will work, because we’re old dogs and we know what we’re doing. But next year we’re hoping to take it out on the road, and if we get to support a couple of decent names, that could be good – just to get people hearing the album. I think once you’re in, you’re in.”
Music Is Art – Vol. 1 is on sale now.
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