The Syn - Trustworks (2016)

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The Syn - Trustworks (2016)

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The Syn was one of the first bands in the London early prog scene and its history is intimately related to YES' origin and therefore it was fundamental to the development of prog. Originally, the band was formed by school mates Steve Nardelli (lead vocals) and John Painter (guitar) around 1965, playing R&B covers. The Syn was later joined by the members of a band called THE SELFS comprised by Chris Squire (bass), Andrew Jackman (keyboards) and Martyn Adelman (drums). Shortly afer, original guitarist Painter was replaced by Peter Banks and Martyn Adelman left to be replaced by Icelandic Gunnar Hákonarson behind the drums.

The addition of two new members changed the direction of the band. Instead of playing R&B covers they started to write their own psychedelic oriented pieces, releasing two singles (Created by Clive and Flowerman) in 1967 and becoming one of the first bands (if not the first) to perform a rock opera on stage. The band became a regular at the Marquee club in London and got to open for JIMI HENDRIX on one of his historic concerts. In 1967 the band disbanded and Chris Squire together with Peter Banks left to form Mabel Greer's Toyshop which will later evolve into Yes' first incarnation.

In 2003, 36 years after disbanding the band, Adelman, Nardelli and Banks started to plan a reunion. In 2005 the lineup formed by Paul Stacey(guitars), Gerard Johnson (keyboards), Steve Nardelli (vocals),Jeremy Stacey (drums) and Chris Squire (bass, backing vocals) released the first studio album of the band "Syndestructible". After the release an tour of "Syndestructible", Nardelli took over the THE SYN name and recruited Francis Dunnery (guitars) and Tom Brislin (keyboards), the last one having played with other classic prog acts such as Camel and Yes. This lineup released "Big Sky" in early 2009 with the collaboration of Brett Kull, Paul Ramsey and Dorie Jackson.

The overall sound of "Syndestructible" will appeal to modern YES and Chris Squire fans, since the style is very reminiscent to recent YES (specially Rabin era) and CONSPIRACY. On the other hand "Big Sky" has moved to a more original sound but is still close to YES. Highly recommended to Chris Squire and mellow prog fans.

~ Prog Archives

For a band that only made two singles, the Syn are quite well remembered by British rock collectors, principally because two of their members – guitarist Peter Banks and bassist Chris Squire – eventually surfaced in the first lineup of Yes in 1968. Their two singles, both issued in 1967 in the U.K. on Deram, were pretty solid efforts in their own right. These charted their transition from mod to psychedelic guitar rock, rather in the manner of a much more famous British psychedelic cult band from the same era, Tomorrow (with Steve Howe on guitar). Their first single, "Created by Clive," was a foppish Carnaby Street takeoff that the band disliked; the fine B-side, the hard mod pop tune "Grounded," featured high soul harmonies and interplay between organ and sparkling guitar, and was much more indicative of the band's sensibilities.

Their promise really bloomed on their next and last 45, "14 Hour Technicolour Dream," one of the best obscure British psychedelic singles (indeed one of the best British psychedelic singles by any band). Inspired by the 1967 psychedelic London festival of the same name, it was an exhilarating distillation of the best attributes of British pop-psychedelia – a hook-happy ebullient melody, precise harmonies, unexpected structural twists and turns, Who-like drumming, and tasteful guitar distortion – into a compact package. It wasn't a hit, though (in fact it was only used as the B-side of "Flowerman"), and the band broke up in early 1968. Banks and Squire played in another psychedelic band, Mabel Greer's Toyshop, for a few months before becoming founding members of Yes. The four songs from the Syn singles have cropped up on numerous compilations of British psych-pop rarities; all four, and a demo of "Flowerman," also appear on Peter Banks' Can I Play You Something?, a compilation of odds and ends from bands that Banks was involved with prior to joining Yes.

Remarkably, the Syn reunited in 2004 and wound up being more active in this incarnation than they were in the '60s. This new version of the Syn featured bassist Squire, guitarist Paul Stacey, keyboardist Gerard Johnson, drummer Jeremy Stacey, and vocalist Steve Nardelli, and they released Syndestructible in October 2005. By the time they played shows supporting the album, the band featured Squire, Nardelli, Johnson, guitarist Shane Theriot, and drummer Alan White. Soon, the Syn became Nardelli's group and he'd swap out supporting musicians for concerts and albums. Two studio albums followed by the end of the decade – 2007's Armistice Day, 2009's Big Sky – and then the live The Syn Live Rosfest appeared in 2015, followed by the studio set Trustworks in 2016.

~ Richie Unterberger, All Music

The 2016 CD release of Trustworks by 1960s U.K. beat-prog legend The SYN, starts off in a very chilling way with the disembodied voices of the late Olaf Palme and India’s Mahatma Gandhi—two great men of peace assassinated in public. These two spoken word excerpts by two venerable visionaries sums up the spirit of Steve Nardelli and his new outing with The SYN. For Trustworks, Steve has chosen to work and record with the rising Swedish prog-rock band Moon Safari. On the 9 track Trustworks, the SYN sound receives a musical reinforcement thanks to the enthusiastic drive of Moon Safari. A fine band in their own right, on Trustworks, Moon Safari backs up SYN founder Steve Nardelli—playing all the instruments while adding in a solid wall of backing vocals everywhere they are needed. In his February 2016 mwe3.com interview, Steve Nardelli discusses recording Trustworks with co-producer Jonas Reingold and members of the Moon Safari band: Pontus Åkesson – guitars; Simon Åkesson – keyboards; Johan Westerlund – bass; Petter Sandström - vocals, acoustic guitar and now former Moon Safari member Tobias Lundgren – drums. Any SYN fan who had the slightest trepidation about this unique pairing of The SYN and Moon Safari will be pleasantly surprised at just how well this brilliant album has turned out. In fact, the album has a unique blend of Steve Nardelli’s catchy beat-prog magic with the sonic prog wall of sound that is Moon Safari. Speaking to mwe3.com about the SYN / Moon Safari collaboration on Trustworks, Steve Nardelli adds, "I wrote the basic songs and together with the incredible musicality and musicianship of Moon Safari, they were developed. The vocal harmony is completely their creation, they are in a league of their own when it comes to the arrangement and delivery, amazing! They are a Swedish CSN&Y, more melodic in my opinion, melody is a dynamic and strength that is common to Swedish musicians." Although he sadly passed away in 2015, the great YES founder and SYN legend Chris Squire would have appreciated this latest chapter of the band he helped forge back in the 1960s. Still a vigilant optimist who remains one of the most underrated U.K. singer-songwriters, going way back to the 1960s, Steve Nardelli rekindles the hopes and dreams of '60s music fans on “Revolution Now” singing, “Good times are coming, Peace in our lifetime.” An accomplished masterpiece of 21st century sounds, on Trustworks, The SYN revives the spirit of the ‘60s with a state-of-the-art prog-rock album.

~ mwe3.com

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The Syn - Trustworks (2016)

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The Syn - Trustworks (2016)

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The Syn - Trustworks (2016)

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