KIT WATKINS
Crossover Prog • United States
From Progarchives.com, the ultimate progressive rock music website
Keyboardist Kit Watkins was the child of two classical piano teachers. After learning to play the piano at a very young age, Watkins played keyboards in cover bands, progressing up to songs by ELP and Rush. In college he met guitarist Stanley Whitaker, who introduced him to even more of the prog rock world. In 1973 Watkins joined Whitaker's band Happy The Man.
In 1979, after only releasing two albums (more would be released later), Happy The Man broke up. Watkins then joined Camel, and recorded I Can See Your House From Here with them. Since then Watkins has released numerous keyboard based solo albums, as well as albums with Coco Roussel and Brad Allen. His solo work ranges from Happy the Man style progressive rock to ambient music to electronic variations of classical pieces.
Many of Watkins' albums are available for free downloads from his website under a Creative Commons license.
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KIT WATKINS discography
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KIT WATKINS top albums (CD, LP, MC, SACD, DVD-A, Digital Media Download)
3.41 | 16 ratings
Labyrinth 1980 |
1.73 | 6 ratings
Frames Of Mind (with Brad Allen) 1982 |
3.68 | 10 ratings
In Time (with Coco Roussel) 1985 |
3.88 | 7 ratings
Azure 1989 |
3.12 | 6 ratings
Sunstruck 1990 |
4.00 | 1 ratings
Thought Tones - Volume 1 1990 |
3.00 | 2 ratings
Thought Tones - Volume 2 1991 |
3.83 | 4 ratings
A Different View 1991 |
3.82 | 3 ratings
Wet Dark And Low 1992 |
3.92 | 3 ratings
Circle 1993 |
4.00 | 1 ratings
Kinetic Vapors 1993 |
3.83 | 4 ratings
Holographic Tapestries 1995 |
2.50 | 2 ratings
Beauty Drifting 1996 |
0.00 | 0 ratings
Ambient Realms 1997 |
3.00 | 3 ratings
This Time And Space 2003 |
4.00 | 2 ratings
Flying Petals 2004 |
3.00 | 1 ratings
SkyZone 2006 |
4.00 | 2 ratings
Field of View 2019 |
KIT WATKINS Live Albums (CD, LP, MC, SACD, DVD-A, Digital Media Download)
4.00 | 1 ratings
Music For The End 2001 |
KIT WATKINS Videos (DVD, Blu-ray, VHS etc)
KIT WATKINS Boxset & Compilations (CD, LP, MC, SACD, DVD-A, Digital Media Download)
4.50 | 2 ratings
Early Solo Works 1980-82 1991 |
KIT WATKINS Official Singles, EPs, Fan Club & Promo (CD, EP/LP, MC, Digital Media Download)
KIT WATKINS Reviews
Showing last 10 reviews only
Kit Watkins Crossover Prog
Review by MovingMazes
With Kit's music, in the early albums at least, and this one is to be categorized as such, there is more punch than in the latest, that are more ambient, I would say.
There are also interesting harmonies, and evolving things on basic patterns. So, both surprises and something we can stick to.
The reason I give this album 5 stars is that with 8 songs I really love, the overall quality is very high. And the 5 other songs are nice too. Approx. 55 min in total.
Kit Watkins Crossover Prog
Review by Dreamer of Pictures
For Happy the Man fans, mostly this music is a treat, very much in the vein that HTM mined with such enthusiasm.
Forte was for years my very favorite song, rich and deep, with some minor key phrasings interspersed with bursts of major key sunlight.
Another favorite is Over the Andes, a song that veers between a monumental effort through a cold and endless environment and the incandescence of achieving a major goal. Those kids of contrasts are a hallmark of solid satisfying prog rock.
Bob's Tune starts with a truly enchanting high register keyboard solo, and at 1:44 segues into a far more intense rhythm section, very upbeat. Eventually the original melody recurs atop that choppy rhythm. It wraps up with a drum solo, including some tuned drums.
If you like the start of Bob's Tune, Pastel will probably suit your tastes too.
Do You Mind is a minor key gem, starting off with quiet questions and ending with very energetic and even forceful answers.
On my phone, in addition to Forte: everything except Sprites, In Time, Spiral March and Apres-MIDI. That's 9 out of 13 I carry around with me.
This CD and the Coco CD Reaching Beyond were pretty much the last of Kit's output that centered on prog rock. You can hear some of his later interests developing here, certain mechanical aharmonic tactics and even some ambient material. Ambient later became a big theme for Kit Watkins.
Full disclosure: I shot a lot of concert photos for the reunited HTM and for its successor, Oblivion Sun. You can seem some of those on their web sites.
It used to be that you could download this CD in MP3 format from Kit's site. As of the week I write this (Dec 22, 2015), the free downloads seem to be disabled.
Kit Watkins Crossover Prog
Review by dsbenson
Definitely not prog music, unless you want to consider this in an "ambient progressive" category.
To me, this is headphone music, and not something I could listen to over speakers. And most definitely not while driving.
One of the things that's worth listening for is the way that Watkins blends together the nature sounds in a decidedly non-natural way, mixing different insects and animals for a non-nature effect.
Kit Watkins Crossover Prog
Review by
SouthSideoftheSky
Special Collaborator Symphonic Team
After having played with American Prog band Happy The Man and then briefly in the legendary Camel in the late 70's, Kit Watkins recorded his first solo album Labyrinth in 1980. While continuing to tour with Camel in the early 80's, Watkins teamed up with someone called Brad Allen to create the present album. Unlike the wholly instrumental, light Prog of Labyrinth, 1982's Frames Of Mind is a vocally dominated, quirky Pop album. This music is actually not very far away from the least good, least memorable, and most poppy songs from Camel's 1979 album I Can See Your House From Here (on which Watkins played). There is absolutely no sign of Prog here, but instead a rather eclectic and quirky mixture of New Wave, Synth Pop, and World-Music. Not really my cup of tea.
The first two tracks are absolute embarrassments and the worst of the lot. What follows is rather incoherent and disjointed, but with occasional decent moments. Watkins is a good musician and I'm sure he would have been capable of making a better album, but as it stands Frames Of Mind is aimless and occasionally even downright tedious.
Kit Watkins Crossover Prog
Review by
SouthSideoftheSky
Special Collaborator Symphonic Team
I am both a very big fan of Camel and a fan of the solo albums of keyboard players in general, so I guess it was just a matter of time before I would check out Kit Watkins. Watkins was recruited to replace original Camel keyboardist Peter Bardens in the late 70's and he appeared on the 1979 Camel studio album I Can See Your House From Here. Before that he played in the American Prog band Happy The Man.
Labyrinth was Watkins' first solo release and even if it is a bit too much on the easy listening-side for my tastes, it has a few traces of the late 70's/early 80's Camel sound. Even if Watkins did not appear on Camel's excellent 1981 studio album Nude, he did appear on the writing credits (together with Andy Latimer) on one instrumental piece called Docks. This same composition also appears on the present album, here under the different title of Mt. St. Helens. I recognized the tune it immediately, but I have to say that the Camel version is much better and more powerful. This version comes across as a bit lazy by comparison.
The album as a whole is actually rather lazy for the most part, though it is not New-Age music by any means (with the exception of the final three tracks). The music is entirely instrumental and strongly keyboard dominated. For me it is a pleasant listen, but not anywhere above that. There is very little to grab my attention, and this is not an album I would play more than once or twice.
For fans and collectors only
Kit Watkins Crossover Prog
Review by Dreamer of Pictures
The version of Chrome here really captures the essense of the subtle, even haunting mood of the song, omitting the guitar-centric middle verse with the upbeat tempo in the HTM version.
I especially admire the pair of tune Two Worlds / 4 bars 1 unit, which I believe are a homage to Genesis, the band that the HTM members most admired and sometimes covered.
The Song Spring 1980 is a simple tone poem, wonderfully melodic and a welcome change from the more fully instrumented other pieces.
The song Labyrinth was inspired by Watkins' rides on the Washington DC Metro subway system, and the cover photo collage was taken in a DC Metro station by Watkins.
Also on my iPod are just about all the other tunes on the CD, excepting the spooks and the three Cycles tunes.
Note that Kit now provides from his web site a free download of this entire album as MP3 files.
Full disclosure: I have been shooting photos of HTM and the Wyatt/Whitaker successor Oblivion Sun for 11 years. Some of my photos are on the band web sites.
Kit Watkins Crossover Prog
Review by
Evolver
Special Collaborator Crossover & JR/F/Canterbury Teams
Like the previous album, Watkins uses a harmonized trumpet sound on a few track. This along with the treibal rhythms, sounds quite a bit like some of Jon Hassell's works. But that's only a few of the songs here. The real joy here come in the synth sounds Watkins uses. While not sounding strange, each synth patch seems perfect for the music he's written.
The songs are not terribly complex. Watkins lays down the main tracks, and instead of soloing, he has other short synth sound dance in and out around the music. It's very nice, and often mesmerizing.
Kit Watkins Crossover Prog
Review by
Evolver
Special Collaborator Crossover & JR/F/Canterbury Teams
The songs are energetic. Most are driven by percussion. And on a few songs, particularly Brave Water and Slinky, he uses a harmonized trumpet sound, that gives the music a strong resemblance to Jon Hassell's works.
Another great track is Funky Duty, sort of a honky tonk blues in 7 and six.
The only disappointing piece is Setting Iron John Free, a softer song that doesn't come close to evoking freedom. But it's good to hear Watkins playing more complex music again.
Kit Watkins Crossover Prog
Review by
Evolver
Special Collaborator Crossover & JR/F/Canterbury Teams
The album is very compelling, and extremely interesting, although I do question Watkins' choice of opening and closing the album with different versions of Erik Satie's 1st Gymnopedie. This piece, a perennial favorite of new agers, is one of the most boring soporific pieces ever written. And on top of that, those of us old enough to remember will forever associate the piece with an awful old Geritol commercial ("My wife, I think I'll keep her").
That song aside, the album is an excellent selection of classical works played mostly electronically. And it can be played at dinner parties.
Kit Watkins Crossover Prog
Review by
Evolver
Special Collaborator Crossover & JR/F/Canterbury Teams
As light as this album is, there are plenty of moments that catch the ear and make you want to listen. And the long airy tone poem pieces toward the end of the album are nice for introspection.
But I hope this path is not one that Watkins stays on for too long.