Month: May 2017

But – importantly – this is not a covers album and the original compositions effortlessly hold their own ground. You just need to hear the fabulously bittersweet and instantly memorable intro song “My Girl Midge” to understand that what we have here is pure pop class.

The vocal interplay between main bandit Duglas T Stewart and new songstress Chloe Philip brilliantly appeals to your heart as well as your brain. And Stu Kidd (of Dr. Cosmo’s Tape Lab and The Wellgreen fame, not to mention Euros Childs and many others) adds a playful stability to the rhythm section, apart from also being main musical collaborator to Duglas on this project.

You can’t hide your love [to BMX Bandits] forever. You need this album this summer.

Then you listen once again.
And again.

Now, you are starting to recognise some turns and twists. You begin to appreciate the careful yet rather abrupt sequencing of songs. You are starting to hum melodies. You are even smiling wryly at the two sorely needed intermissions the band have thoughtfully included.

At one point you catch yourself by starting over from the beginning directly after a straight listen. Not very practical to do with this 16-song, 51 minute humdinger. But by now you don’t care, because you have come to accept this as one of those rare albums.

This is not a “Countdown to Ecstasy” by Steely Dan; not a “How Dare You” by 10CC; not a “Swoon” by Prefab Sprout; and not an “On Land And In the Sea” by Cardiacs. It can’t be, because then it wouldn’t be the genre-bending pop album that it is – and that all those are.

Although this is already The Blood Rush Hour’s third amazing album, I have little clue as to who the people behind the band moniker are, except that they seem to be spread out across Wales and the US. But the group is clearly the brainchild of Robert DeStefano, who has written all the songs (except for one co-write with Dan Lavery). He has produced the album and is the main lead singer on the majority of the songs.
And in my world, he is also a bona-fide superstar. Mr. DeStefano, if you read this, you are truly my hero.

So, who folds first? Are you up to the challenge?

http://www.nicolarecords.co.uk/who-folds-first-2/

“In Colour” var tänkt att bli uppföljaren till den ganska väl mottagna “Dog Eared Moonlight” på Andy Partridge’s Ape-etikett. Men istället rann allt ut i sanden. Robert White berättade för mig för något år sedan att killen som drev skivbolaget bokstavligen var apjobbig och att det hela mynnade ut i en lång rad missade chanser som gjorde att mjölken sinade och honungen definitivt tog slut.
Men nu är det bara att ladda ner och njuta. På “In Colour” har White fullföljt den alltmer västkustinfluerade riktningen från tidigare plattor, nått varvet runt och landat i ett samspelt Beatles/Byrds-bandsound som inte är helt väsensskilt från exempelvis Teenage Fanclub.

Kostar inget för den som inte vill – missa inte!

Magic Bus of course never did that, but instead they have wrapped themselves in an English countryside time bubble all of their own. This is retrogressive rock, but when it is this good and unassuming, one can only have praise.

Although the instrumentation is primarily electric, the sound is strikingly organic. Unfortunately. the simple reason may be hard rehearsal practice to make up for lack of funds to spend more than nine days in the recording studio. But the result is nevertheless the sound of a real band playing, not a studio spinning on empty.

Tempos shift but not in a muscular way. Although individual instruments beg you for attention – organ, mellotron, flute, guitars that play solos, and drums that play melody in that old Canterbury way – the focus here is clearly on the whole rather than the individual.
Magic Bus very much feel like a hippie collective and they play magical, mystical music. The album unashamedly starts out with the rather epic “Mystical Mountain” and there is even a subsection name to the track title, “(i) Twelve Kings”.

But don’t worry, this stuff does not get lost in pretentious crap. These guys know what they want and how to get there. Their music will put you in sync with the universe. That is, if you just have the courage to let it.