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• Somewhat like peeling the proverbial onion, the John Metcalfe you see today might not be the one who appears before you tomorrow. Here he is the composer of the music on a set of two CDs from Black Box. Elsewhere he occupies the violist's chair in the celebrated Duke Quartet. Formerly, after an infatuation with techno-pop (Kraftwerk) and post-punk (Joy Division), he was a member of the experimental rock band Durutti Column. Nowadays he is regularly engaged as an arranger in the popular music business, where he has worked for the likes of Morrisey, Simple Minds, The Corrs, George Michael, Mariah Carey, the Cranberries and Tom Jones. Sometimes, when not playing the viola, he plays violin, guitar or piano.
  
  This versatility is Metcalfe's trade mark, and it's worth bearing in mind as one approaches 'Scorching Bay', his second release. Like the categories through which we process the world, our genres offer the security of the predictable. But Metcalfe's music slips across boundaries. Some listeners will rejoice in that; others, duly prepared, will warm to it. No doubt some will just find it silly.
  
  If there's a kind of meta-genre in the making here, its ingredients include a number of styles and procedures, some of which are themselves imprecise: neo-minimalism, rock, pop, techno, electro-acoustic, ambient, Baroque, jazz, Latin, contemporary classical, as well as, occasionally, something reminiscent of the piano style of Richard Clayderman - he of the hushed, saccharine tinklings so beloved of restauranteurs with Biggie Best décor. From sources such as these, and with between four and six musicians playing violin, viola, cello, double bass, piano, guitar and drums, Metcalfe has blended 23 tracks, each with its own particular colour and demeanour.
  
  The differences - at least on the surface - between the tracks is one of the strengths of these discs. One track on 'Scorching Bay' cycles gentle electric-guitar lines to create light, brightly transparent textures, from which, as figure to ground, some arresting motifs nudge their way to the front. On some of the tracks that follow, strings are bowed quietly over the dirge-like pulsings of a deep pedal; or busy, scurring, spiky motifs chase each other around and around; or a pearly, cyclical piano line combines with layers of muted string patterns to create a rhythmically incongruous but delightfully buoyant texture. Some of the writing is distantly reminiscent of the early string music of Kevin Volans (or a less challenging version of it): which is not surprising, given that, as a member of the Duke Quartet, Metcalfe has played and recorded a good deal of that composer's string music.
  
  The results are unfailingly attractive. My reservation - and it's a strong one - is that this is music entirely without shadows. Music to float in it might be, but it's also music for easy listening. The playing is precise and effortless, as it needs to be - and as one would expect, with members of the Duke among the performers. It's also superbly recorded, fairly glowing with a clear, clean presence.
  Christopher Ballantine, International Record Review, 20 July 2004