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Gart Williams probably never played a single note of music. Unlike Bruce Berry in Neil Young?Äôs ?ÄúTonight?Äôs The Night,?Äù there were no moments to ?Äúsing a song in a shaky voice that was real as the day was long.?Äù Too busy working for an unappreciative employer whose single motivation tool was to sternly dictate, ?ÄúPush, push, PUSH, Williams!?Äù Too busy going home to an unappreciative wife who resented his every breath. Too busy dreaming about a place called Willoughby.

Gart Williams was the main character in an episode of ?ÄúThe Twilight Zone?Äù titled ?ÄúA Stop at Willoughby,?Äù written by the series creator Rod Serling. Serling may have derived the name ?ÄúGart?Äù from the Middle English ?ÄúGarth,?Äù which means ?Äúdefender of the garden.?Äù As every horticulturist knows, a garden begins with the planting of seeds, bulbs, or spores into holes or division in the soil.

Which leads us to ?ÄúDivisions in the Soil,?Äù the new CD by Facts Aktor & The Analysis, and its song, ?ÄúWilloughby.?Äù

A major-key refrain of quarter notes on piano, resembling George Winston having a REEEEALLY bad day and taking his frustrations out on the far right side of his keyboard, is joined by a rock band playing in support of the refrain but now in a minor key. The band and pianist proceed to change from key to key after completing the refrain, ratcheting up the musical tension with each raised tone. After another brief solo piano flourish, the band returns to the song’s primary minor key mode, now joined by the vocal lamentations of a narrator who is ?Äúbeing someone who I never thought that I could ever be?Ķthey?Äôve got my life, they?Äôve got my life, they?Äôve got my life, it?Äôs in their hands?Äù and his declarations of living for Friday at five o?Äôclock when the work week ends. The song shifts abruptly into a major key and a joyous chorus: ?ÄúWilloughby/A place I always know there will be/A place that always has and still brings out the real me/ A place that always has and always will conceal me.?Äù

Despite three rounds of verse and chorus and an urgent staccato electric guitar solo, the song?Äôs narrator finds himself in a sonic nightmare of samples from the ?ÄúTwilight Zone?Äù episode: Gart?Äôs employer?Äôs ?ÄúPush, push, PUSH!?Äù followed by his wife?Äôs condescending dismissal of him, Gart?Äôs own declaration that ?ÄúNext time I?Äôm gonna get off,?Äù a child?Äôs voice, and finally the train conductor announcing, ?ÄúWilloughby?Ķnext stop is Willoughby,?Äù all in counterpoint with an electric guitar solo that has joined the piano refrain and doubled the madness factor.

The song ends with a train whistle that morphs into a police or ambulance siren and one more sample from the television episode, a spoken invitation to the listener: ?ÄúIt?Äôs really a lovely little village, you oughta try it sometime.?Äù

The same could be said for this CD. This Vallejo band has produced one of the more intriguing recordings of 2007, thought-provoking, at times bleak, always tempered with a sense of musical and lyrical wit. And it rocks.

?ÄúDivisions in the Soil?Äù is a collection of songs that reflect the divisions in contemporary life: the resignation of ?ÄúWhat Have You Got To Lose?Äù (?ÄúOppress the life I?Äôve slowly come to know?Äù) and the title track (?ÄúNothing more to regret/Nothing left to protect?ĶThe joke may be on me?Äù), the anonymity of ?ÄúAnonymity?Äù (?ÄúWhy is it so easy to run another person down?ĶAnd we?Äôll never tell/No one will ever know?Äù), and the futility of escape in ?ÄúHideaway?Äù (?ÄúWhat are you trying to run away from/I just don?Äôt get it?Äù). It also has moments of mirth, as in ?ÄúTwistin?Äô To The Hale-Bopp,?Äù which references the Beach Boys classic ?ÄúBarbara Ann?Äù (“Bopp-bopp-bopp”) and contains a hilarious punchline at song?Äôs end. It calls out contemporary musical divas and a media promoting them to an all-too-eager audience in the closer ?ÄúGive It Up Mariah,?Äù noting how it is ?ÄúAmazing what power can do/What it can turn you into?Äù and ends with a chorus asking ?ÄúCan you accept the glory/When you know that it was wrong/Give it up, Mariah/Put it back where it belongs,?Äù complete with Brian Wilson-inspired oooo?Äôs and ahhh?Äôs as backing harmonies.

To order ?ÄúDivisions in the Soil?Äù and for additional information, visit http://cdbaby.com/cd/factsaktoranalysis. It?Äôs easy: to get started, just put one of your fingers on a computer keyboard?Äôs ?Äúw?Äù and push push PUSH!