And so to something truly obscure. The first release on Hood Faire records is Sam & The Plants' “In the Scare Shed”.
It's limited to 41 copies. Yes. Forty One*. I've got number 32.
(* In fact, the CD has now sold out. You can however get an edited version of the album on 10” vinyl on Finders Keepers records and it's well worth searching out).
Lancastrian Sam McLoughlin has somehow managed to squeeze 24 tracks into this 44 minute long album, and it's a wonderfully erratic journey with many dizzying ideas along the way.
Just when you think you might have a handle on what's going on with some almost conventional singer songwriter faire such as “Cold Night Car Park” or “Taxi”, Sam veers off into the acoustic guitar meanderings of “Round the House” and “Finger”, or even into the ambient drone territory of “Haji's House”. These detours even happen within songs, the pleasant strumming and fairground organ of “Lilo” breaks down into whirling electronic feedback at the end.
Some of the songs are completely off-kilter - “Ruke 2” sounds like a glockenspiel being flushed down a drain, and others a bit more self explanatory – “Bus Ride” is just that – a 20 second snippet recording of a bus journey. And no prizes for guessing what instrument features on “Recorders”.
Some of the songs are completely off-kilter - “Ruke 2” sounds like a glockenspiel being flushed down a drain, and others a bit more self explanatory – “Bus Ride” is just that – a 20 second snippet recording of a bus journey. And no prizes for guessing what instrument features on “Recorders”.
Meanwhile, “Old Haunted Town” and the shanty-like “Should” recall I Am Kloot's John Bramwell back when he was going under the name Johnny Dangerously, and “Void” has the whimsy of a Northern Syd Barrett.
As you might expect for an album that crams so many songs and ideas into such a short space of time, some of the tracks are very brief indeed, but such is the way that strange electronic noises, warbling accordion, dictaphone messages and tinkling keyboards wash in and out it soon becomes difficult to know where songs are beginning and ending, making this an album to be listened to in its entirety (no bad thing, you'll be picking different parts out of each track for weeks!)
Magnificent stuff.
So, sorry that this has sold out and I have it and you don't.
As you might expect for an album that crams so many songs and ideas into such a short space of time, some of the tracks are very brief indeed, but such is the way that strange electronic noises, warbling accordion, dictaphone messages and tinkling keyboards wash in and out it soon becomes difficult to know where songs are beginning and ending, making this an album to be listened to in its entirety (no bad thing, you'll be picking different parts out of each track for weeks!)
Magnificent stuff.
So, sorry that this has sold out and I have it and you don't.
Have a listen to:
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment