Salvation Army - The Present Age: Gospel Arts Concert 2007
STYLE: Brass Band RATING OUR PRODUCT CODE: 42219-DVD394 LABEL: Salvationist Publishing & Supp 26031 FORMAT: DVD Music video ITEMS: 2 EXTRAS: CD RRP: £19.95
Reviewed by David Faulkner
This recording features all you would expect of the Salvation Army, plus some contemporary touches. In the former category, meet the International Staff Band and Songsters, the United Youth Choruses and teenage rising star of the cornet and trumpet Philip Cobb (reviewed elsewhere on this site). In the contemporary box, we have dancer Karen Telfer, dramatist Liam Parker and rock band Electralyte. Most of the music has a traditional Salvationist tone, often taking modern material and reworking it into typical SA medleys. Hillsong, Chris Tomlin, Israel Houghton and others get this treatment. Even Electralyte get ISB backing. And that is the general theme: the baptism of contemporary music into tried and trusted Sally Army forms. It's meticulous and classy, but the DVD is not quite to the standard of the music. Visual quality is average, titling looks like it's been done on a home PC and every chapter fades to black at the end, rather than being edited/mixed smoothly. This release is one for committed lovers of SA music and those looking to dip their toes in.
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