Robin Phillips – Bass

Robin is the son of Margaret Phillips, who played piano on Solstice’s first album, Silent Dance (1984) and occasionally joined the band onstage at the Marquee. He grew up surrounded by music and so it was destiny that he should join Clive Bunker to form the Solstice rhythm section that gigged in support of 1996’s Circles. His reputation as a great bass player and ‘the nicest guy you could meet’ has led to work with numerous projects along side his recent work as a wolf handler……yes really!

I struggled to transcribe the tracks on the latest Solstice album, ‘Light Up’, because the bass was so massive in the mix I was struggling to distinguish the specific notes (this can be a problem with double bass recordings) but, by copying the tracks onto Moises and fiddling with the mix, I was able to find the details I was looking for. The attached transcription is Robin’s bass parts for the tune ‘Mount Ephraim’. The tune us based around eight bar patterns consisting of 7 bars of 5:4 and 1 of 6:4. There are some 1 bar vocal ‘interludes’ that catch the ear, some of 5:4 and others of 3:4 so watch out for them. I believe that the title refers to the town in New Jersey where the album was recorded.