Miles Apart

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The new Leon Hunt Album “Miles Apart” featuring: Stuart Duncan, Michael McGoldrick, Matt Flinner, David Grier, Flook, Daily Planet, Rob Ickes, Viktor Krauss & Ben Winship

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“My instinct is to thoroughly dislike a good banjo player (particularly when he is also a nice bloke - there's only so much one can take). I spent years struggling with the damned thing so it can be enormously irritating to hear it played with such consummate ease.
What really impresses me is the fact that unlike most British 5-string banjo players Leon’s done so much more than just slavishly copy the American masters. Yes, there's plenty of Scruggs, Keith and Fleck knocking about here, but I love the way he’s taken the quintessentially American instrument that was used for music brought into Appalachia by English, Irish and Scots musicians and brought it all back home. You listen to the stuff he's done with Flook - three-fingers can do so much more than one pick. His version of Silver Spire with Michael McGoldrick is also a real killer.
Then there's the more jazzy side of his playing. I'm a huge Ellington fan and also partial to a bit of Django, so seeing tunes like Caravan and Nuages on the list concerned me a bit. I needn’t have worried though as he treats both with appropriate reverence and necessary invention.
Musicologists often bang on about how songs, techniques and styles moved to the United States from Britain and Ireland, then bounced back having picked up some blues and some jazz, then back to the States, then back again. Leon seems to have dragged the two together in a way that makes it almost impossible to hear the join. He sits along-side Michael McGoldrick and Flook just as easily as with bluegrass masters Stuart Duncan and David Grier, and believe me, these people don't throw their lot in with just anybody.
This is a great album. Put it on at dinner parties - it will impress your friends. Give it to anyone who has denigrated the banjo - it will embarrass them. Give it to other banjo players who haven't heard Leon play - it will show them what's possible with a lot of work and a lot of talent.”
Nick Barraclough BBC Radio 2

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Clark's Secret

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A SHORT EXPLANETORY NOTE FROM THE NIGHT EDITOR: This, our first album, is effectively a diary of Daily Planet's first two years. It's been recorded, added to, chopped, changed, engineered, edited, sub-edited and used as a Fish 'n' Chips wrapper in so many studios and in so many formats that it woul endanger several acres of rainforest to list all the details.

“On very rare occasions you hear an album that's really different. The tunes stick in the mind. When this happens you know you have something special... thay have definately released something special. This is a high quality album, not just by a high quality band but by a high quality British band... If you have to categorise this album, store it in the rack between Shooglenifty and EII. But I can guarantee that it won't be on the shelf for long.”
Shreds & Patches

“Oh joy of joys!... it is the best recording so far by any British band playing bluegrass based music. This CD is a favourite in our house... treat yourself to a copy.”
British Bluegrass News

“Evolution is the only way for any music to remain valid and with "Clark's Secret", Bath based outfit Daily Planet have produced a startlingly good album, taking bluegrass to hitherto unknown territory, without losing sight of its roots... they proceed to stamp their unique identity, which ably demonstrates their instrumental prowess, quirky humour and obvious love of the music, on the music... There aren't really any comparisons to be drawn but, overall, there are echoes of another band of groudbreaking outlaws - Scotland's Shooglenifty.”
Taplas

“Extremely able and very competent... trading in authentic and suitably upbeat bluegrass laced with just enough originality and plenty of spirit, they should build up a reputation for quality if the evidence on "Clark's Secret" is anything to go by... A refreshing and consistently delightful litle disc.”
Rock And Reel

“Excellent musicianship with inventive arrangements... this album has everything going for it... this album should bring them to the notice of the wider audience that they deserve.”
Living Tradition

“...Daily Planeet's virtusic Appalachian Britpop bears as much relationship to bluegrass as Sun Ra did to trad jazz...”
Hi-Fi & Record Review

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The Big Scoop

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“On their first album a couple of years ago, Daily Planet were a quartet playing bluegrass music with a few additions. A couple of personnel changes, the addition of a drummer and this album is a whole different kettle of fish. OK, they still use bluegrass as their base root, but then it's all hands to the pumps as influences from rap to blues, rock to classical, flood in. Take the first three tracks: 'The Big Scoop' is a laid back instrumental with some superb harmonica, guitar and banjo, performed with a slightly jazzy feel. 'Take Your Time' is contemporary soft rock with excellent guest vocals from Steve Robinson (ex-Innes Sibun); then comes 'India', almost trance dance, very 60s-flavoured and with some great vocal work from the inimitable Paul Bradley. So the album continues pulling this way and that, until the final three tracks which were recorded live and show the Planet at their best. The surprising thing is that, given all these differing styles and influences, there is a remarkable feeling of cohesion about the whole recording. This is undoubtedly the best album from a local band in the last decade and should go a long way to extending Daily Planet's reputation throughout the British music circuit.”
Review of 'The Big Scoop' Tony Slinger, Venue Magazine Aug/Sept 1998

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