Afresco Mantis - The Harris Tweed EP (Freaky Fungi)When is an EP not an EP? When it clocks in at over 43 minutes, thats when. Good grief, in the good old days, that was an LP. Which for those of you not in your dotage was a long player. You know, vinyl. 12". Turntable. Ask your gran. Anyway, spacerockers in sense of humour shock! Mind you, I was panicking a bit. 90 seconds had gone by with nary a bleep or swoosh to be heard. I was not happy. Fortunately the following 25.5 minutes of "Harris Twwed Pts 1-4" more than made up for it. Watch the Atomic Kitten fans flee as Afresco Mantis launch into a Gong section. Assuming of course they haven't bought an Atomic Rooster reissue by mistake, in which case they're mine to be moulded in malicious, malignant manner. Afresco Mantis know what the psychedelic, spacerock fraternity want, and they serve it up in fine, freaky, fungi, fashion. And why is it that people who took a shed load of drugs in the sixties though that psychedelic was a good word to use for themselves. How many years were wasted by fackin hippies trying to work out how to spell it? We'd have a cure for cancer by now, if they'd stopped smoking long enough. Things calm down a tad on the short and pithy "Arizpheric Bush" (nope, me neither), which ambles in at 12 and a bit minutes, before shutting down with the Laurel and Hardy dub of "The Prophets Will Go To The Fish". Mad in a good way and yours from www.the-rocker.co.uk for only £6.00 Afresco Mantis c/o 11 Purley Road, Plains Farm, Sunderland SR3 1QS, UK, but don't tell my Newcastle supporting colleague or he'll have me shot for saying nice things about Macken scum) |
DAVID NEIL CLINE - Thorough Scrutiny (Gazochtahagen Records)Hot on the heels of, um, the last one, the unfortunately initialled DNC is back for another go. And it's good to report that it's business as usual, but better. It's still fairly balls to the walls, seventies guitar rock, but with an added dose of Devins and Dweezils thrown in for good measure. In fact, the more I think of it, which is in itself unusual, the Devin comparisons seem ever stronger. Which is good. To vary the rawk onslaught DNC chucks in a couple of covers, Rory Gallaghers "Follow Me", and bravely or foolishly, the untouchable rock and roll classic that is Pat Travers "Snortin Whiskey". I tested it against my original 12" single, and DNC puts up a fair fight. Bonus points go to the extra work DNC has put in on the vocals, and you're left with a cracking album which rock purists should clutch to their chests with glee. Gazochtahagen
Records, PMB#125, 1223 S Gratiot, Clinton Twp, MI 48036, USA |
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