THE PSYCHEDELIC BREAKFAST - in Uncle Sam's Basement Emporium
Having heard an earlier eepee, I was looking forward to
a full ceedee, and I was not disappointed. This is a very
impressive album indeed. Oodles of psychedelic, blues,
folk and rock, mixed together with some whimsy and mid
Eastern influences. Blimey, it's as if the 80s and 90s
are just a rabid hallucination of my increasingly fevered
imagination.
However, they do have enough modern nuances to their name
to ensure that it's not all retro, with tinges of dance
and ambience lurking around the edges, to keep the young
folks happy. There's mad sampling, whispers and screams,
and shades of stoner to keep the hairy lunks like me,
content.. If you remember such combos as the Beta Band
and Gomez, then forget about it. This lot are several
thousand times better than any mainstream new acoustic/psychedelic
faux movement.
With the right push, and the ability to do this live,
The Psychedelic Breakfast have the songs, ability and
indivituality to be huge, well hugeish. They're already
making waves in te world we like to call undergorund,
and I look forward to them being too big to talk to me.
CARPTREE
- “Superhero”
The title track is quite stunning with clever word play
about an X-ray in reverse (Think about it!), a neat Tony
Banks influenced synth break helped along by a coruscant
bass line (Ulf Edelonn) and an irresistible chorus, the
latter a trade mark of the Carptree sound. ‘Father’s House’
has intense lyrics –do I hear the word ‘suicide’ in the
chorus?- and the band include a ‘vignette’ (for each song
indeed!) - This one says ‘empirical deductions and a single
hope’- food for thought! By the time we get to ‘Host Us,
Graft’ it is obvious that the music on ‘Superhero’ is
based on big arrangements, a big chorus and the kind of
synth lines that used to grace ‘Wind and Wuthering’ and
‘And Then There Were Three’. The thing is there are only
two of these incredibly talented Swedish chaps (Take a
bow Niclas Flinck and Carl Westholm) producing this amazing
sound (although they are helped considerably by a varying
rhythm section and a background vocalist). It’s a pity
in a way that the vocal comes so late on ‘Watching the
Clock’ as I’d already made my mind up that this was a
beautiful filmic piano/ strings instrumental- think Nyman
or Glass. From the quietest track to the heaviest ‘Into
the Never to Speak Of’ which reminded me, surprisingly,
of heavy prog compatriots Anekdoten. ‘Flesh’ is a perfect
example of the ‘story telling’ song writing tradition
all pervasive in this album in the manner of Gabriel,
Fish, maybe even Hammill in the explicitness of the lyric.
‘Malfunction’ has a redoubtable narration by Franziska
Edvinsson but if the chorus doesn’t melt your heart nothing
will. By the time we’ve come to ‘Sleep’ I realise the
vocal harmonies of Supertramp are an obvious reference
point, a romantic, tranquil ending for an album whose
songs are populated by lush and sometimes stark imagery
and skilful, resplendent arrangements. All I want to do
now is start all over at the beginning again. Carptree
has taken a massive step forward from their first album
and have produced a potent blend of symphonic progressive
pop that demands the widest exposure- highly recommended.
Contacts:
(reviewed by Phil Jackson)
VARIOUS ARTISTS - 2 Fast 2 Furious
And here's the latest tie-in for a no brainer of a movie
involving cars, rappers and scantily clad young ladies.
So naturally, the soundtrack involves cars, rappers and
scantily clad ladies.
Fortunately, the movie stars a gentleman by the name of
Chris Bridges, but whose mother now knows by the name
of Ludacris. One of the few original talents in the game,
he is always worth a listen, and it's his contributions
to the soundtrack that make it worthwhile.
Hot new talent of the month, Joe Budden, gets a look in,
along with a host of Def Jam artists. Well it is their
release, so it's a promo op more than anything else. Top
tracks. "Act A Fool" by Ludacris, and the killer
collaboration between Tyrese, Ludacris and R Kelly, "Pick
Up The Phone".
LEIPZIGER BLECHBLASERSOLISTEN - Brass Over!
That would be the Leipzig Brass Soloists, in case you
were wondering. And this is certainly interesting. Five
brass players playing music spanning four centuries from
the likes of Johann Sebastian Bach, Georg Friedrich Händel,
Thelonious Monk, Paul McCartney and, of course, the legendary
Anonymus.
It would appear that the gentlemen concerned were slightly
aggrieved about the lack of musical opportunities available
to them, and decided to set about transcribing pieces
for brass instruments. They've been playing together since
1992, but the addtion of a percussionist with mmm, nice,
jazz tendencies in 2000, appears to have notched their
game up a peg.
This is an ambitious piece of work, and to ears not attuned
to the sound of brass instrumentation, makes for an enlightening
experience. I was particularly taken with the Kurt Weill
piece, "Dreigroschenmusik", and, if nothing
else, am now familiar with the concept of a tuba solo!
Worth checking out if you;re looking for a new avenue
of adventure.
