Martin Simpson (bass guitars, keyboards and drum programming) and David Hearfield’s (guitars, vocals) project is, in essence, a serviceable set of demos. The tunes and the vocal arrangements are pleasant enough, and Martin turns in suitable bass lines throughout. Skin Deep, the title track, is a good tune – Martin’s bass plays a pivotal part here, and the growly, early 70s synths are used to great effect. The piece ends rather abruptly, which is unfortunate. Her Darkest Hour is a Rare Bird cover – so Martin tells me (I’m only familiar with the band’s ‘Epic Forest’, ‘Born again’ and ‘Somebody’s watching’ albums): a beautiful song, but essentially a demo. It cries out for harmony vocals, live drums and a more anchoring role in the bass department. Does it have to be Goodbye? Is my next favourite among the original compositions – great tune and vocal arrangement, but the bass and keyboard lines are waging avoidable rhythmic warfare here. And be Lonely and the final track, What I Say Today, too, are enjoyable. This ostensively being Martin’s first venture into drum programming and keyboarding, the programming is leaden and fairly pedestrian throughout, while the keyboard parts have, well, the ‘Look, Ma: one finger!’ charm of late 70s New Wave. In short, then, song-wise there is not a single dud here, and the tunes really deserve to be re-recorded and produced more imaginatively.

Okay, here are my favourites on Martin Simpson’s ‘Lost in Space’. The Quarterican is pretty much Martin’s signature tune, a focused little number that has the bassist’s hands all over the fretboard, a concise solo bass feature that clocks in at just under two minutes. Get Lost is a great prog epic, with sterling contributions by guitarist Mauritz Lotz and drummer Larry Rose, and Martin himself on huge bass and bubbling, growling keyboards. My suggestion would be to edit out Judy Marshall’s vocal interjections, which are just plain irksome, as they are on all the other tracks – bar the solo bass feature. Midway through the piece, things really start percolating, and even at over nine minutes, there’s no room for tedium here. My third favourite is Orbit, balls-to-the-wall rock, with an enticing flute feature, courtesy of Annerine Tomlinson. The piano coda (Dave Sharp) works less well for me: it somehow appears to be tagged on as a bit of an afterthought, but it doesn’t detract from the overall spirit of the piece. The two versions of Space Rock are marred by the drum programming, vocal bits and by Heinz Schrader’s saxophone (on Splash Down) that, well, never really lifts off.

In summary, then, these CDs comprise two good sets of demos and a satisfactorily produced set of tunes that would benefit from some doctoring, by way of adding live drums, excising the vocal bits and adding a really stratospheric horn. (You owe the bass world that prog album, Mart!)