Finn Millar (vocals, guitars, clarinet, piano, keyboards);
Stephen Robson (drums, percussion, Autoharp, keyboards)
Influences
The wild and beautiful world; people and all that they do; birds and animals and their strange ways; music, including: Beach Boys, Beatles, Pink Floyd, Fleetwood Mac, Moody Blues, Genesis, Doors, Nick Cave, Beth Gibbon, Moby, Talking Heads, Yello, Crowded House, Tir Na Nog, Cat Stevens, Maxime le Forestier, Georges Moustaki, Francoise Hardy, Donovan, Love, Caravan. Roy Harper, Leonard Cohen, Bob Dylan, Monkees, Neil Young, Simon and Garfunkel, Led Zeppelin, Alice Cooper, Tyrannosaurus Rex; Rogers and Hammerstein, Film theme music, Ennio Morricone; Saint-Saens, Borodin, Debussy, Brahms, Dvorak; Glenn Miller, Benny Goodman, Miles Davis; books, including: Tales of Mystery and Imagination, The Old Man and the Sea, the Gormenghast trilogy, the works of Carlos Casteneda, The Summer Book, the Helliconia trilogy, Berlin, Alexanderplatz, The Lord of the Rings, Monkey, The Overcoat, The Man Who Was Thursday, The Napoleon of Notting Hill, Peter Pan, Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrel; Thomas Hardy, Borges; the poems of Dylan Thomas, Wilfred Owen, W.H. Auden, Neruda, Rimbaud, Baudelaire, W.B. Yeats, Wang Wei, Li Bo, Li Ho, the Chu Ci, T.S. Eliot, Ezra Pound, Kahlil Gibran, Lao Zi, the works of Mary Baker Eddy, the Bible.
Shay Tal is: Finn Millar (guitars, vocals, piano, clarinet, keyboards), Stephen Robson (drums, percussion, Autoharp, keyboards, backing vocals), with bass guitar courtesy of our great friends Punishment of Luxury bassist Jimmy Davis and the late Vic Warrington. We're based in Weardale in the North-East of England.
We have just released a new EP, entitled "Bring in all the Horses" on the Stone Premonitions label.
Our albums, "Tambourina" and "Dreamers and Stalkers", are available either from us (send us a message), from dynamitevision.com on the Falling A label, or may be downloaded from stoneislandrecords.com. "Tambourina" received the following reviews:
“The music is song-oriented, with a highly ethereal blend of psychedelic folk, plus progressive rock influences that inject a sense of musical adventure into the mix. From the jazzy dreamscapes of ‘The Bottomless Blue’ and ‘Train (If I’m Dreaming)’, to the emotional prog-fused ‘Born In The Winter’ and ‘We Dream Of This’, the seductively psychedelic ‘Kingfisher’ and ‘All Of Your Friends Have Changed’, to the spacey meditative raga grooved ‘Deadly Nightshade’… 13 absolutely gorgeous mind-expanding tracks.”
“…dreamy progressive pop…influences of folk, classical music and jazz and…some psychedelic tinges…beautiful melancholic melodies and great atmospheres…a mystical, tender and beautiful world.”
“Shay Tal play beguiling and cross-genre visceral music with an other-worldly touch, through the medium of Millar’s exquisite vocal style and sensitive clarinet, guitar and keyboard colourations and Robson’s empathetic use of tone and colour in his drumming, percussion and Autoharp.”
“Each song is a carefully conceived entity, the album unified by Millar’s unique vocals and inventive, searching lyrics…Despite the album’s length (thirteen songs and almost an hour), the band manages something new in each track…most impressive is the fact that there isn’t a weak song in the set…’Eagle’ encapsulates the band’s virtues all in one song. A simple repeated lick on electric guitar underlines lovely multi-tracked vocals, later replaced briefly by an oboe solo. The effect reminds me of that gorgeous Yes song ‘Onwards’…And ‘Sea Blue Dreams’, the one song in which Millar’s vocals remind me most of those of ‘The Dreaming’-era Kate Bush, somehow manages to be both perky and haunting. Take my word for it.”
“I’d recommend it to anyone interested in good, inventive music on the softer side of progressive rock but a good long distance from the mainstream.”
"Dreamers and Stalkers" was also well received:
"Dreamers and Stalkers is a gentle and moving album of music that flirts with pop, indie and dreamy psychedelia to create an other-worldly work that really defies categorisation." (Terry Craven, Wondrous Stories, Journal of the Classic Rock Society, UK).
"Shay sail on a pop/progressive ocean with some melancholy waves...Their music is light as the air and has some happy vibrations...Their music seems so fragile and I never want to break the spell that comes from their songs...I recommend this record to people who like music to be a voyage to a magical land from where they will surely come back happy." (Renaud Rigard, Zoopaloop, France).
"These are confident, strong songs and the band are not afraid to skip down uncommercial avenues with the female vocals topping off some deliciously off-kilter tunes.." (The Crack, UK).
"Cute yet melancholic female vocals waft over backing that consists of almost reggae-rhythm guitars and keyboards that wouldn't have sounded out of place on any later material by the Police. Very strange." (Melody Maker, UK).
"Shay...use soft and gentle psychedelic elements...Clean guitar sounds melt in the summer rain, which is built by the unusual but charismatic female vocals, the harmonic guitar chords...If you like well done psychedelic rock with ingredients of triphop and melancholy, you should check out this band." (Markus Weiss, Durp, Germany).
"...there is some truly beautiful music on here...An excellent CD with plenty to offer. Highly recommended." (Stuart Hamilton, Zeitgeist, UK).
I edited my profile with Thomas' Myspace Editor V4.4
Is there any way your CDs could get to australia? I've had two of the songs for a while now, but I need your albums! The music is too good to not want more!
Hey Hey Many thanks for the friendship. This is some truly wonderful music - I want to dance round a forest to it, but on a lovely summer's day....I guess I'll have to wait a while! dAVE oUT oF vERbAL tiGEr
Shay Tal are featured in my latest September show for Dandelion Radio, a Peel-inspired online station playing exciting new and unsigned music. We are a fully-licensed Internet station that is run and presented by volunteers recording monthly shows.
To view the schedule and listen to the audio stream, visit our website www.DandelionRadio.com, or find us on MySpace at myspace.com/dandelionradio. Hope you can find the time to listen to our fine shows...
Finn Millar (vocals, guitars, clarinet, piano, keyboards);
Stephen Robson (drums, percussion, Autoharp, keyboards)
