» Listings for 2024

1. 2023/4 Albums Thing 250 - King Creosote “I Des”

   Posted on 9:50am Tuesday 9th Jan 2024

   Post #250 in this project which has now slipped into its second year feels like a real milestone. It's therefore appropriate that it's about some new music, well it was released in November 2023 and that's new to me, so let's get on with it shall we...

   Xmas and the New Year was over, Deb and me are lounging about with Tom Robinson on BBC 6Music streaming in the background. After him playing a Motown tune (can’t remember what it was) and me bemoaning what happened to 6Music, I thought it was supposed to be the BBC’s “new music” station, Tom played something that made my ears prick up. It was a gentle, beautifully melodic song with lots of pianos and synthesizers washing around in the background. Once it had finished Tom explained it was an excerpt from a 13 minute song (!) called “Please Come Back, I Will Listen, I Will Behave, I Will Toe The Line” from the album “I Des” by King Creosote. Actually he said it was by Kenny Anderson and that it was Kenny’s 50th (!!) studio album.

   Now the thought of a 13 minute long song should have put me off, but the bit I heard was so lovely I did some digging around and found that I could stream the whole album on YouTube. I did just that the next morning and three songs in I’d ordered the (Gold) vinyl. Effortlessly melodic songs all of them, with lyrics I can’t wait to dig into, what’s not to love.

   King Creosote is/are Kenny Anderson, a singer and songwriter from (The Kingdom of) Fife, just across the Firth of Forth from Edinburgh. King Creosote released his/their (?) first album in 1997. Since then he/they have released as few as none and as many as seven albums a year (2021, the lockdown years were productive for Kenny as he released 7 self financed albums on CD-r although most journalists don’t seem to count these, saying his previous album to this was released in 2016). Kenny sings in a gentle, soothing Scottish accent and absolutely has a way with a tune if “I Des” is representative of what he does.

   The first two songs, “It's Sin That's Got Its Hold On Us” and “Blue Marbled Elms”, are superb. “It's Sin That's Got Its Hold On Us” begins with distorted tubthumping electronic drums which are joined by an acoustic guitar and strings and finally that soothing Scottish lilt in the vocals. Caveat is I could live without the preacher at the end. “Blue Marbled Elms”, which I believe was the albums first single, has what sounds like what might be a Harmonium droning away (*checks credits* I was right but how do I know what a Harmonium sounds like ?) and Kenny’s vocal is joined by Hannah Fisher’s voice which lifts the whole thing. Third song “Burial Bleak” is sparse, almost hymnal with a real Folk feel to it and it’s dazzling.

   Later on “Please Come Back, I Will Listen, I Will Behave, I Will Toe The Line”, an excerpt of which is the first thing I heard, is stunning. I don’t generally have the attention span to stick with songs of 13 minutes in length, they have to be pretty special or have a lot going on and this has both. For around 6 minutes it’s very much in line with the sound of the rest of the record (apart from “Susie Mullen”, an uptempo dance tune which feels incredibly out of place) and then suddenly after a rousing chorus a full on rock band breaks out for a couple of minutes, big drums, electric guitars, squealing synths. Then, just as suddenly, it settles back into something you’ve become more used to before sliding back again into synth washes, haunting girly vocals and tinkling johanna’s for the last couple of minutes. Thanx Mr. Robinson, I love it.

   Final piece “Drone In B#” isn’t going to be everyone’s cuppa. It’s a 36 and a half minute instrumental (with the vinyl release it’s a download only extra) that for almost 8 minutes is purely what the title says it is although having listened to it a couple of times there’s Krautrockers out there that will love it. Bizarrely, at around 12 minutes, it’s a little reminiscent of the incidental music toward the end of “Crocodile Dundee II” !

   “I Des” feels like electronic folk music (folktronica…is that a thing ?). The musical settings are overwhelmingly electronic but folk instruments and melodies make themselves known and that calming Scottish lilt in Kenny Anderson’s vocals add to the feeling. The first 3 songs are as good as anything I've heard in a long aul time and there is much more later on. Reading back through this I've used the descriptives lovely, soothing, superb, dazzling, stunning, rousing, haunting, calming and of course more than once the one word I've seen applied to this record by many a review I read, and it fits perfectly…it’s beautiful.

   Have a listen below, check the album out on YouTube like I did, hopefully you'll be as captivated by it as I have been.

   Please Come Back, I Will Listen, I Will Behave, I Will Toe The Line - https://youtu.be/Ln7pTGiIp6Q?si=yT1IEt-tn8yoXgAr

2. 2023/4 Albums Thing 249 - Eat “Epicure”

   Posted on 9:50am Saturday 6th Jan 2024

   Finally I managed to snag myself a copy of Eat’s magnificent second, and sadly final, LP on vinyl for a price that didn’t look something like a mortgage installment ! 

   Sometime between the release of “Sell Me A God” (https://www.whiterabbitrecords.co.uk/blog/read_204118/2023-albums-thing-127-eat-sell-me-a-god.html) in October 1989 and the end of 1990 relations between various members of the band (Singer Ange Dolittle, Bass player Tim Sewell and Drummer Pete Howard on one side and the two guitarists, brothers Paul and Max Noble on the other) got so fractious that the Noble’s departed and Eat were in limbo during 1991 and 1992, although my diaries tell me they were gigging again by mid-92. To do that means that new guitar players Jem Moorshead and Max Lavilla were onboard by then.

   As two fairly important members of the band had changed Eat’s sound necessarily changed with them. “Sell Me A God”s groovy swamp blues became “Epicure”s groovy pop-psych. When you have a rhythm section as tough and tight as Sewell and Howard groovy comes as standard.

   For his performance on opening song “Bellytown” alone Peter Howard should be being hailed daily as one of the greatest drummers this little island of ours has ever produced. What he does sounding effortless while driving the whole band along and being groovy as f*ck, all at the same time. Pete has found his way into my collection with Eat, Vent 414 and latterly The Wonder Stuff and Miles Hunt’s most recent albums (sorry mate your tenure with The Clash ain't for me). It’s never less than thrilling to hear him play. Pete is right up there in my affections with Martin Gilks, The Groove Controller, as two of the best I’ve ever had the pleasure to know and work with.

   Tim Sewell steps up to the front line on “Fecund” with a bass line that carries the whole song and has you wondering how his right hand didn’t cramp up and fall off playing like that. Ange Dolittle’s voice is imperious throughout, he really was one of the best singers and frontmen I’ve ever had the pleasure of encountering, and still is. Jem and Max add a whole different dynamic to the songs on this album but when I saw Eat live were equally able to play the “Sell Me A God” songs with all the swamp that was required.

   “Golden Egg”, “First Time Love Song”, “Tranquilliser” and the closing “Epicure” are all majestic songs, this album is full of them. It’s one of those where I am still, 30 years after the fact, flabbergasted that this record isn’t held up as an absolute gem and lauded over like some a few years later have been (the Emperor’s new clothes of “OK Computer” and “Screamadelica” for instance). Eat (to my thinking) were one of the great bands of the early 1990’s and the fact the likes of they and Jellyfish disappeared in the face the slop now known as “Britpop” is a real indictment on the “great” record buying public…Eat shoulda been massive.

   Bellytown - https://youtu.be/qplUHGgwACE?si=Consl0lfNSkWQlSX

3. 2023/4 Albums Thing 248 - Various Artists “Eddie Piller Presents British Mod Sounds Volume 2 (The Freakbeat & Psych Years)”

   Posted on 9:40am Friday 5th Jan 2024

   Mr Piller’s 2nd Volume of “Mod Sounds” from the Sixties. I don’t own the first volume as, after reading the track list, and with all due deference to Eddie and his impeccable Mod credentials, it struck me as a collection of stuff that someone looking back from the 2020's imagines as Mod sounds of the period rather than it being what London’s 60’s Mods we’re actually listening to back then (I’m pretty damned certain there was no Tom Jones, David Bowie, The Hollies, Dusty Springfield or Manfred Mann getting spun by DJ Guy Stevens at the Scene Club in Ham Yard). Now I understand that when you are compiling huge collections like this you can't get everything you want and have to fill the gaps, but still I gave Volume 1 a miss.

   Eddie Piller is a broadcaster, DJ, compilation compiler and the head honcho at Acid Jazz Records. As I said earlier his Mod credentials are impeccable (his Mom ran the Small Faces Fanclub !) so I expected better of Volume 1 but thankfully he redeemed himself with this one. We all know what is meant by Psych, right ? But Freakbeat is a somewhat more esoteric genre to nail down, we talked about it a little back in July when we were looking at Les Fleur De Lys (https://www.whiterabbitrecords.co.uk/blog/read_204279/2023-albums-thing-140-fleur-de-lys-circles-the-ultimate-fleur-de-lys.html). It’s a term coined in the 1980’s to describe records made by exclusively British (I think I’m right there, I can’t think of any US records described as Freakbeat) Beat combos who had discovered the fuzz pedal and were transitioning between R&B rooted beat music and Pysychedelia/Prog between 1965 and 1967. A perfect example of Freakbeat would be Les Fleur De Lys “Mud In Your Eye” which appears on this comp and you can listen to at that link just a couple of sentences back.

   This is a huge 91 track collection across 6 LP’s pressed on (deep) Purple vinyl with an extensive booklet filled with notes and pictures (of record sleeves and labels mostly which I find fascinating). I do own many of the tracks included already on CD box sets like “Nuggets” and “Acid Drops, Spacedust And Flying Saucers” but the chance to get some of these on (purple) vinyl was too tempting to resist. Of the Psych tracks some to look out for would be Dantalion’s Chariot “Madman Running Through The Fields” (featuring a pre-Police Andy Summers), Kaleidoscope “Flight From Ashiya” and “Rainbow Chaser” by Nirvana (no, not them !).

   If you’re looking for further examples of Freakbeat then look no further than Wimple Winch and the raucous “Save My Soul” 7” copies of which start at around £1000 theses days, Tintern Abbey’s “Vacuum Cleaner” (the B-side of their only single whose A-side was titled “Beeside”), the John Peel endorsed Misunderstood and their “Children Of The Sun”, The Mickey Finn’s rollicking “Garden Of My Mind” and the Apostolic Intervention with “Tell Me (Have You Ever Seen Me)” including a not at all disguised Steve Marriott on backing vocals.

   The songs by The Action, with the superb “In My Dream”, Timebox and “Gone Is The Sad Man” plus The Move with “Disturbance” are all great 60’s pop songs with a sprinkle of the flower power that was heading this way. Times were changing, music was changing and it’s all charted in these songs. It’s been said that you can chart the changes in British music by which drugs were popular at the time and the amphetamine rush of the Mod days is definitely ceding ground to the psychedelics of the later 60’s and you can hear it in these records. 

   There are things here you’ll all know too, The Who “I Can See For Miles”, Keith West “Excerpt From A Teenage Opera” and Staus Quo “Pictures Of Matchstick Men”. There are bands here containing names we’ll get to know better in a few years time, we’ve already mentioned Dantalion’s Chariot, John’s Children “Midsummer Night Scene” features the unmistakable vocal stylings of Marc Bolan, Sam Gopal (formerly Sam Gopal’s Dream) had a singer name of Ian Willis aka Ian Fraser Kilmister who became better known as Lemmy when he joined Hawkwind, Tomorrow’s guitarist Steve Howe would go on to find fame with Yes, the guitarist in The Birds was one Ronnie Wood, The Idle Race was Jeff Lynne’s home before he skipped across town to join The Move and we have a solo Alex Harvey before he hooked up with his Sensational band. I’m sure there are others. 

   It’s a huge collection, beautifully compiled and presented marking a changing time in 60’s music. Good work Mr. Piller. 

   Wimple Winch “Save My Soul” - https://youtu.be/gi9GXxVDJQg?si=RwLQrTxi11xBTn6T

   The Action “In My Dream” - https://youtu.be/pFm2wyGQWgY?si=0_a37MDZhI_h8AUZ