Early Felt was always an uneasy compromise between Maurice Deebank's elegant, embellished guitar work and Lawrence Hayward's smart, caustic, Bob Dylan/Lou Reed-inspired art-rock leanings. It was little surprise, therefore, when Deebank bid Felt a bitter farewell following 1984's exquisite THE SPLENDOR OF FEAR, going on to record 1984's INNER THOUGHT ZONE, an understated solo masterpiece of multi-tracked composition where the creativity suppressed in Felt was finally given full rein.
The album works the charms of early-'80s British indie rock to considerably artier ends, as layered electric and acoustic guitars meander in subdued splendor. Deebank's classical filigree, dazzling, Television-style chords, and spangled arpeggios entwine around Dave Elson's spidery bass lines on "The Watery Song," "Four Corners of the Earth," and "Dance of Deliverance," tracing the opulent textures of a singularly psychedelic tapestry. For this 1992 reissue, Deebank re-emerged to co-produce four new tracks with keyboardist Jon Cotton; "So Serene" and "A Tale from Scriabin's Lonely Trail" are intricate instrumentals every bit as scintillating as those presented on the album proper.
