The Borderland was a large music review website administered by British music journalist John M Peters and featuring music that was generally produced by underground artists and small independent labels. The site closed in 2018, and I guess that all of the reviews were then lost as I can't find any on the ephemeral internet. The Borderland reviewed many of my early albums in the 2000-2010 decade, and when I asked about these in 2018, John sent me copies of his reviews, so for reasons of information preservation I've decided reproduce them here verbatim for posterity, one post at a time.
My note: This applies to the first edition of Animalia, R6A, released 21/06/2004.
Mark Sheeky - The Twelve Seasons
The Twelve Seasons is a 'proper' album in that it is all original material and unrelated to any computer game soundtracks. Having said that ...Seasons continues to showcase Mark Sheeky's propensity for a great tune, just listen to the opener The Dance Of Summer and A Day In The Life Of An Aphid to see what I mean. It would be unfair to class this as a concept album but it does have a theme, that of the passing seasons, so some of the tracks are bridged with the sounds of nature, which offer a breathing space before the next belter. There is certainly much more variety here, the dozen tracks offering varying shades of lightness of touch and sound, and more adventurous layers of instrumentation. This may not be Vivaldi's Four Seasons but it shares some of that piece's grandeur. You could say that generically Mark's music lies somewhere between the thumping low brow drama of techno and the lighter electro-pop genres - the music has the oomph of the former and the melodies of the latter. Highly recommended.
- John M Peters/The Borderland
