Stein - The Lost Horse CD (Double Crown)

This expansive 14-track album is a dream project for Israeli guitarist and songwriter Tal Rubinstein. He’s joined by other musicians on drums, percussion, trumpet and other instruments, but Rubinstein does the rest - electric and acoustic guitars, bass and Mellotron. The result is a cinematic journey through the world of spaghetti-westerns and their accompanying soundtrack music. In an interesting twist, 13 of the songs are originals, while the sole cover is “Suffer The Children” - this hit for Tears For Fears closes the album. While the choice of this song seems out of left-field, you'll be floored by how perfectly it works in a spaghetti-western style arrangement. The original songs are all excellent with a strong Shadows/Rautalanka sound throughout. The album is filled with twangy, echoey guitars that make this a perfect album for listening to with headphones. The cover art is nicely done as well, with a beautiful illustration and layout that fits the album perfectly, without succumbing to the cliched horse/desert/cactus look that is often found with spaghetti-western releases. The band is now performing and recording under the name "Surf Machine".

Tracks: The Lost Horse - Navajo - Caravan - Grand Canyon - Mirage - El Dorado - The Dry Tree - Quicksilver - Los Toros - Lone Star - Revolver - Mustang - Tequila Sunrise - Suffer The Children