= N O V E M B E R 2 0 1 0 =
 

Welcome to another seasonal round of Rumbles. This time your reviewer is literally in Deep Water, thanks to the largesse of the record label of the same name. So it’s time to wade in and, erm, test the water.

First out of the bag is “Glowering and Glowing Red” (DW021) by Flying Sutra, essentially a guitar and drums duo occasionally supplemented by bass. Combos of this kind haven’t exactly been thin in the ground in recent years – think White Stripes, Sky Drops, Black Keys, even dear old Om, all of whom have to a greater or lesser extent hit the sonic spot. Unfortunately this sounds like a guitarist and drummer keeping warm in a cold and draughty garage whilst waiting for the singer to turn up so they can make a proper start on rehearsals. And therein I think lies the problem – no singer, a thin sound and very little direction. Work in progress methinks. www.dwacres.com

Some delightfully skew-whiff alt country/folk is up next, courtesy of Swedish multi-instrumentalist Daniel Westerlund aka The Goner. “Behold a New Traveller” (DW024) sounds like Danny boy has had one too many hits of the mushroom moonshine and is none the worse for that. An off-kilter blend of woozy, organic, backwoods tunes interspersed with lazy, hypnotic psychedelic reels and addled exploration has The Goner standing knee deep in some half forgotten and muddy left-field. What might otherwise have sounded slightly strained and reedy is sensibly and tastefully fleshed out by additional bass, drums, guitars and vocals with the help of a few guests. This is a curiosity that’s well worth checking out. www.dwacres.com

Adam Bugaj mines Boards of Canada-style territory on “Telegraphed” (DW026), the follow up to his 2006 debut album. A mostly mellow, noodling album of synthesizer music and drum patterns augmented by some understated guitar and bass, “Telegraphed” takes its time to hit its stride – the first four tracks are way too annoying and scrappy and sound like someone dropping a drum machine on the random programme settings of an old Casio. When it does settle into something approaching a rhythm, though, the effects are quite melodic and charming. 16 tracks over 33 minutes never did the Ramones any harm, and I’m mindful of the old Captain Beefheart adage that if you stuck with a groove for too long it became corny. Well maybe so, but you sense this would work better over a lesser number of tunes and allow more room to develop some of the good ideas on show here. www.dwacres.com

Evening Fires provide no less than three offerings and none of them disappoint.

Recorded between 2007 and 2009 “Medicine Man” (DW028) is a hypnotic and heady collection of shamanistic freak folk on which the sacrament has been swallowed hook, line and sinker. The mood and sound is not dissimilar to Fraser-favourites the Third Ear Band but is more developed and sophisticated thanks to a wider range of musicianship and instrumentation and more varied influences. The spiritual and at times transcendental sound occasionally builds into a sensual, almost free form psychedelic jam and all in all the effects are at one becalming and exhilarating. This could become the soundtrack to a pagan ritual near you.

“Waves in the Air” (DW023) features a stripped-down version of the “big- band” line up that gave us the sublime “Medicine Man”. “Waves” comprises four long tracks which, whilst ploughing a similar field, features a more straight ahead sound (almost rock on third track “From the High Country”) and is an altogether less intense experience. It still sounds delicious mind.

“The Book of Wonders” (DW025) distils the best of both Medicine Man” and “Waves in the Air” and is probably the ideal introduction to the wonderful world of Evening Fires, though. If push came to shove I’d have to plump for “Medicine Man” as my pick of a very fine bunch indeed. www.dwacres.com

Marcus Obst, aka Dronaement has kindly provided us with CD number 50 in a private edition of precisely that number entitled simply “a collection of songs about Norway”. The eight untitled tracks, recorded in 2008, paint a bucolic landscape in which esoteric drones, minimalist guitar and electronica and muted vocals are intertwined with field recordings to produce a pleasantly ambient effect that serves as a tonic for a hard day’s work. Unlikely to shift Motorpsycho or Serena Maneesh from the top of your reviewer’s list of favourite Norwegian acts, maybe, but Obst’s meditative and entrancing opus proves to be a most enjoyable experience all the same. As a limited edition private collection one suspects it is meant showcase Obst’s art and to whet the listener’s appetite to delve further into his strange and intriguing world. If you’re tempted (and you could do a lot worse, believe me) then here’s the link… http://www.myspace.com/dronaement PS: As the man says-“take care of your sheep”.

A complete change of pace now – several in fact – as we see the welcome return of Texan crazies ST 37 with this their umpteenth release in a career now spanning more than 23 years. “High and Inside” (Blue Circle - GI 90) is a rollercoaster ride of more styles than you would have thought possible in a single outing by one band. Over 10 tracks and 75 minutes “High and Inside” veers from the rather fetching, gentle paced psychedelic opener “Maroon” with its wolf call chorus, through Grateful Dead-style noodling, experimental noise, garage punk, Zappa styling and beyond, punctuated and supplemented by collages of radio broadcasts, and spoken word narratives reminiscent of Joe’s Garage’s “Central Scrutiniser”. There’s even a track that sounds like it could be an outtake from Pink Fairies’ “Kings of Oblivion” (“Breaking Lines”). Mountainously uneven, in lesser hands this could easily have degenerated into a sprawling mess. As things stand, however, there are plenty of valuable nuggets for the patient prospector to mine here. www.myspace.com/ST37

There is an old adage that less is more. Nowhere is this more a case in point than with “Teeth of the Union” by Ice, Sea, Dead People (geddit?).Track one, “I’m a Cat” augurs very well - urgent, staccato rhythms, machine gun drumming, noisy, angular punk rock, and plenty of the right attitude. And then the boys (three of them) pull it off again and again until, quite frankly, it gets a bit one dimensional and wearisome and you ache for a respite or at very least a bit of variety. This is a great pity, because

ISDP have a huge amount to offer and are probably great fun live. Zane Lowe, Steve Lamacq, NME, they all love them and you can see why, because there’s some impressive ideas well executed here. In fact this could have made a great EP, but after 9 short and explosive tracks I wasn’t too sorry when it came to a spitting, crashing halt. www.iceseasdeadpeople.com www.myspace.com/iceseasdeadpeople

There are many Dylans aside from the obvious Bob. For a start, there’s the Welsh Dylan (Meic Stevens or, if you must, David Gray) countless New Dylans and, in the 1970s, the Oldham Dylan. Yes, that’s right. Stand up one Kevin Lamb, native of North West England who followed his dream decamped to LA and Nashville and did what he had to do. And this is where OZIT records come in having re-issued his two albums, one of pleasant if unremarkable folk rock, the other of surprisingly polished but quite pointless US-style country blues rock. The first of these, “Who is the Hero”, (OZITCD0116) from 1973 offers multiple spot the influence opportunities, often within the same song, so much so that it sounds more derivative than inspired (Lindisfarne, Moody Blues, Elton John, His Bobness). Not bad, but in no way is it essential. However at least it is in some respects true to Lamb’s Northern folk roots. “Sailing Down the Years” (OZITCD0117) from 1978 on the other hand swallows the American dream whole. Whilst it features both Andy Summers and B J Cole, neither of them can prevent a slide into cod-AOR in the style of Little Feet, Timothy B Schmidt-era Eagles and, mercy me, Billy Joel, infused with Skynyrd-style honky-tonk. Now progressive rock is, to this day, vilified for its excesses which of course led to the stripped down punk sound of the late 70s and from which it has never really recovered. It beats me how this kind of sanitised and over-produced country blues has avoided the same sort of opprobrium as it is just as guilty in my view and particularly when it is sung by Brits pretending to be good ‘ol boys. Lamb still lived in the UK at the time. Quite what they made of Kevin in his subsequently adopted homeland of United States is not known but one hopes that he found an audience for what by the late 1970s had become an anachronistic form of music in Britain. Sadly he’s no longer with us but hopefully some nearest or dearest will benefit from these carefully repackaged albums (with plenty of bonus tracks) culled from Lamb’s personal tapes. www.ozitmorpheusrecords.com

Did I mention punk rock in that previous review? Well let’s do the timewarp and give a big welcome to Terrascopic Rumbles to Peterborough’s The Destructors who embrace the spirit of ‘77 (or should that in fact be the “Ghost of ‘76” as befits the title of one of the tracks here). “Dead Beat to White Heat” (Rowdy Farrago Records) is blistering punk metal, all two and a half chords and shouty “yob” vocals – if you can imagine early Motorhead grafted onto the Buzzcocks and fronted by Steve Ignorant and you’ll either like this or else have already looked away by this point. With titles like “Blood”, “Demolition Derby Crash”, “Ultraviolence” and “Hate Song” this isn’t pretty by any stretch of the imagine (neither is the packaging). Sample lyric? Why not try “Headshot, deadshot 1963, I wanna know who killed Kennedy”. These boys evidently like to shock but there is also a humorous, tongue-in-cheek quality to some of this and, beneath the moronic exterior, some nice hooks. They also cover “TV Eye” and “Get Me to the World” in typically boisterous not to mention effective fashion. One for the ageing punks, the throwback purple Mohican wearers and Oi! revivialists amongst you. Now where did I put me sulphate? www.myspace.com/thedestructoruk

“Starry All Over” is the second record by Seattle three-piece Snowdrift. Beautifully shimmering music, oak matured in melancholy, this has an ethereal feel thanks to some thoughtful production which lends a spectral chill to proceedings as cello, guitars, synths and a gorgeous, often playful bass bubble, squeal and wreath their way wraithlike around the haunting voice of Kate Terran – imagine Portishead’s Beth Gibbons with fewer break beats to contend with. Exquisitely psychedelic and for the most part laid back, this is totally irresistible. Immerse yourselves completely and bid yourselves welcome to the Otherworld, we know you will be very happy here. www.myspace.com/snowdrift

Now we’ve slowed things down a tad and got things nice and spooky, I think I’m ready for this month’s journey to the Drone Zone.

First up, courtesy of those fine folk at Black Drone Records is “Courting Leviathan” (BDRL004) by the wonderfully named Bring Me the Head of Orion. This is guitar based drone in its most basic form, stripped of any accompaniment and deafeningly devoid of any bells and whistles. In style it takes the basic Sunn 0))) template and regresses it even further, Depending on your viewpoint of state of mind this is either powerfully emotive or else the equivalent of someone putting a new amp through its paces in the practice room of your local music shop. www.blackdrone.com

Book of Shadows are old acquaintances of the Terrascope and, as such, may be familiar to many of you. “Prayer Wheel” is a typically incorporeal collection of improvisations courtesy of Carlton Crutcher’s Austin TX collective based around the spectral cooing of wife Sharon. This is subtly insinuating, more like Gong offshoot “Stroking the Tail of the Bird” than the thud and blunder density of the guitar gods. It ain’t gonna rock your socks but as a soundtrack to a special kind of Halloween Party (just two weeks away as I write this) by which I mean no children, no Rocky Horror Show bores or “scary cup cakes”, this might well light your black candle.

The second Book of Shadows offering is the quite remarkable “Tea in the Sidhe” (Sonic Oyster Records SOR35). More of the same, then? Well yes, certainly, but Book of Shadows seems to be scaling new heights or perhaps fathoming unchartered depths with this five-track opus spanning almost 80 glacial minutes. The longest track is the 31 minute opening number, “Terrascope Tea Party” (I did say we went back a long way), sets the scene – starkly beautiful and unsettling at the same time, with Sharon Crutcher warbling and ululating like some lost soul doomed to wonder the shadow lands for eternity. The title track distils and refines the template (in fact one of two actual credited compositions as opposed to the usual method of improvising on a theme) before the centrepiece of the album “Midsummer w/ Verdi”. And what a chilling and magnificent 27 minutes it is as are the other offerings here, both mere vignettes by comparison but equally beguiling and haunting. In fact, track for track this may be the most focused and accomplished Book of Shadows offering to date. www.myspace.com/bookofshadowsaustin

Once more out of the labyrinth then, dear reader.

James Blackshaw is a young man currently enjoying a fair bit of exposure and critical acclaim and rightly so. A guitarist and pianist of some distinction, Blackshaw supplements his own rapidly expanding oeuvre with guest works with the likes of Current 93 and seems to have the knack of turning up at the “right” festivals (ATP, Supersonic). “All is Falling” (Young God Records YG42) typically showcases Blackshaw’s virtuosity but in a way that is light and accessible. The hypnotic, slightly folky undercurrent of much of this eight part work is bound to invoke comparisons not only with the minimalist composers and the likes of Fahey/Basho but also with the early work of Mike Oldfield (THAT album in particular) although at no stage does the music become subsumed by the cult of the multi-instrumentalist. So there’s none of this “oh look, he’s playing the comb and paper with his toes whilst blowing his own crumhorn” type anal retention. I digress, this is a pleasing and refreshing work that gladdens the heart and purifies the soul and is the sound of a young musician at the top of his game. www.myspace.com/jamesblacksaw

Two EPs next, both featuring husband/wife partnerships. Fuzzy Lights are responsible for one of the year’s best albums so far namely “Twin Feathers” (see October Rumbles). In fact “Helm” (Little Red Rabbit LRR018) predates “Twin Feathers” by a month or so and, as such, provides an ideal taster for their critically received long player. The stoned immaculate “Things We Left Behind” is near perfect and the next three tracks hardly disappoint either. The Appalachian air of “Aira” with its creaky, ghostly violin and guitar accompaniment; the icy “Burn with Light” and the mellow acid-folk of Black Diamond will delight and entrance in equal measure. Evocative of misty Fenland mornings and mystical twilights, Fuzzy Lights can’t put a foot wrong at present. Cherish the moment and lose yourselves in the wonderful world of Xavier and Rachel Watkins. You’ll not regret it. www.littleredrabbit.co.uk
www.fuzzylights.com

Sam Lench and AnnaZwech, provide the nucleus of Samson and Delilah, who released a fine debut towards the end of last year (See March Rumbles). “Black Dog” (Little Red Rabbit LRR022) is the first single to be released from their follow-up album scheduled for release early in the New Year and charts Lench and Zwech’s progression from a duo to full band. The title track is a case in point, featuring a fleshed out and sumptuously recorded slice of what one might call Radio 2 folk. However the other two tracks are more in keeping with the feel of the debut album. The Zwech voiced *Orchid Soul” may sound to some ears like they’ve missed their turning onto the Twee Town bypass but is in fact a lovely little number, whilst “Proud of You” features a cracked Cobain/Young style vocal over an acoustic guitar. An all-too-brief offering then, but a tantalising glimpse of what we might expect from the new album. www.littleredrabbit.co.uk
www.thesamsonanddelilahshow.co.uk

Psychic Baggage is a vehicle for Australian multi-instrumentalist Duncan Blanchard and the eponymous album (Endless Melt EMR 003) is essentially an exercise in instrumental, deconstructed jazz noodling. Not bad but not an easy listen and over time a bit self-indulgent. Blanchard is no doubt a musician’s musician and this is likely to appeal to the like minded and not to anyone wishing for something to hum. www.endlessmelt.com

However Psychic Baggage is almost light entertainment, a four to the floor rousing danceathon compared with the avant-noise of Israel’s Quetev Meriri. What to make of “Al Xurvot HaAviv”? Atonal, clunking, disquieting post-everything experimental music is the order of the day as Haim Rachmani’s Hebrew language collective wring every last tortured gasp from a range of both conventional and off the wall (assuming that guest musician Chef Roy Harari on knives keeps his instruments on a magnetic strip) instruments. A quite mesmerising collage of sound, the best comparison I can offer is to imagine Einsturzende Naubauten busking on everything including hot and cold taps outside your local branch of M and S (or should that be S and M) having been spiked with every illicit and dangerous recreational drug known to man and beast. Or put it another way, what if Alice had taken the brown acid before going down the hole?

A perverse and perhaps guilty pleasure, this is not for the faint hearted, but if you enjoy a challenge (perhaps you too played asphyxiation and sensory deprivation games when you were at college – oops here I go again) then give this a spin, loudly and alone. Go on, I dare you. www.quetevmerini.bandcamp.com

Back to some semblance of sanity, relatively speaking, Baltimore’s cult namecheckers’ Solar Temple Suicides’ debut album “Sentinels of the Heliosphere” (Sleepy Records ZZZ 005) is a hazy, narcotic slab of shoegaze that brings to mind early 90s Oxford tyros Ride (remember them, before leader Andy Bell became bass bitch for the Brothers Britpop?) as well as Explosions in the Sky, Dark Star even early PiL. It’s pretty decent stuff, particularly the portentous, slightly doomy “Pale Blue Dot” and the pick of the poppies here, “Tried Words Resorted to Deeds” which is the darkest, most cranked up number on the album and should knock your socks off. Elsewhere the results can be a bit mixed, there is a tendency to plod and meander at times, but the moments of treading water are outnumbered by the swimmingly good. There’s nothing really new here then but so what? The boys do what they do and they do it well enough for a qualified thumbs-up from your reviewer. www.myspace.com/solartemplesuicides

Richard Haswell is an Edinburgh musician with more than 20 self-released albums to his own and other names like Rhubarb and G is for Gnome. His current album, entitled “Safety in Movement” (Rhubarb Music RHU026) reveals an admirable lightness of touch based on quite simple but endearing guiar motifs. Opener “Magnetic Moon” is a case in point, so organic it’s straight out of the wood and on which Haswell’s untutored but not unpalatable strains are supplemented by the pleasing chirrup of Shelley Haswell. There is an unashamed stab at commercial acceptance on track two whereby a Supertramp intro gives way to Bryan Ferry style warbling before a headlong lurch into the sort of acme, mid-paced, anthemic plod so beloved of Doves, Snow Patrol, Elbow and any number of any other safe “rock” bands of the day. Thankfully this is but a momentary lapse of reason as Haswell rights himself with “The Rings of Saturn”, a breezy melody over a sub-motorik backing. However what he does best is understated acoustic guitar-based musing particularly on highlights like “Arise” which is how you guess Roy Harper and Pink Floyd might have sounded had their renewed their musical collaboration beyond “Have a Cigar”. The funny “Post Goldrush Blues” a (tongue in cheek?) paean to Neil Young, Towns Van Zandt and old technology is another highlight. The rest is decent enough by any reasonable standard except for the odd place where the formula becomes slightly insipid. Bit there’s more than enough here to make me want to explore more of Haswell’s burgeoning back catalogue. www.richardhaswell.co.uk

Laily Recordings is a new record label and this, only their third release and entitled simply Laily 03, is a compilation of instrumental pieces by a range of different artists. The pieces are based on folk themes starting with sub-Satie plink-plonk piano, and working through mediaeval/Celtic guitar, cello, pipes, church organ and more and reveal to greater or lesser extent the virtuosity of each artist.

There’s nothing to get particularly excited about here, although the eerie ambient minimalism of Plinth’s “Dulcimer Music 2” appeals as do the similarly inclined “Love Unknown” by Rev Simkins. Plinth, incidentally, is Michael Tanner who plays with Sharron Krauss and United Bible Studies, so he’s got a bit of useful form as far as we at Terrascope are concerned. www.lailyrecordings.worpress.com

Curiosity corner beckons now, readers. I really don’t know what to make of Jesse Rakusin’s latest offering “Awaken 1”, if only because the production value is so awful you can barely hear it at times. In fact it sounds like it’s been recorded into a toy microphone by someone stood some distance outside of a recording room inside which J is wrapped in a 5000 tog duvet. So rough hewn you’ll be picking splinters out of your hands for hours after handling the CD, this could be a long lost Captain Beefheart demo, a homespun blues classic, it could be one guy just having a laugh and following his muse, in which case all power to him. Hell, I’ve no idea what’s going on… jrakusin@gmail.com

“The Shock of Sparks” (KF26195) is the debut album by young country rock outfit “Killing Fields of Ontario”. It’s packed full of classy chops, intelligent lyrics and nice phrasings and is neatly packaged into an even paced and not overly long 49 minutes of music. They remind me a lot of Uncle Tupelo, Whiskeytown and that late 80s early 90s US alt-country scene, except that this lot aren’t American or, for that matter, Canadian, but from the Leeds and Sheffield areas of West Yorkshire. It’s a bit like finding out that Steeleye Span were from Seattle. Top tracks include blistering opener “Tired of Being a Man”, bluesy “Breathe”, rifftastic rocker “Single Rose”, backporch picker “Broken Flowers” and take your pick of the rest, because this is more than decent fare. Hopelessly incongruous in terms of time and place, perhaps, but one to be cherished and played loud and often all the same. www.killingfieldsofontario.com

Buzzard Lope is a trio who play a largely unassuming brand of gentle pop music based around the voice and piano of Roger Illingworth. The fact that Illingworth’s co-conspirators are a double bass player and a drummer will tell you that there are a lot of jazz leanings in evidence on “Daybreak” (Lost Toys 010), their debut mini-album. And that’s where it works best, when they move away from somewhat mawkish plodding balladry into the more swinging, groove-some and downright interesting “You’re Wrong” and “Stumbling Block”. This is the sort of territory that this potentially fine combo ought to aim to occupy more in future. www.buzzardlope.com

Moonwood (not to be mistaken with Moonweed - he who used to tickle synths for Gong and who currently does the honours with Hawkwind) is an extended project of one Jakob Rehlinger aka Babel. “Coal Aberrations” (Arachnidiscs Recordings) features an international group of musicians on instruments ranging form rudimentary percussion through to cello and all manner of gizmos in between, The result is a heady and highly effective mixture of brooding, ambient minimalism, incantations, dirge and avant-drone music underpinned by a loose acid folk template. The improvised results are a simple yet powerful, not to mention wholly satisfying, collection of post-psychedelic and experimental pieces – 17 of them in fact over almost 70 transcendent and uplifting minutes and where the song titles are almost as evocative as the music (“The First Good Hangover of Spring”, “Desert Dusk Cactus Cult”, “I Rarely Leave This Apartment”). This is truly esoteric music for the mind and body and carries a definite seal of approval http://arachnidiscs.wordpress.com/

A gentler and more subtle album is “Prismatic” (Home Assembly Music HAM 004) by The Green Kingdom, under which graphic designer and “sound artistMichael Cottone records. A collection of slight yet warmly melodic compositions, this is redolent of Board of Canada getting it together in the country and is a fine example of ambient chill-out music for when the pace of life gets too much. www.homeassemblymusic.com

If ever proof were needed that some records need more than one listen to make a true impression then here is a case in point. On first listen I did not like Birmingham, Alabama native Jesse Payne’s “Nesting” one little bit. It all sounded a bit too REM on the slide or perhaps like a third cousin of Fleet Foxes and rather too comfortable for my tastes. Subsequent listens reveal more hidden depths particularly on tracks such as “Yards of Paint”, “Wes Anderson” and especially “Ramble We Hang”, which fare better than the more hit and miss “up-tempo” numbers. Some of it still sounds a bit muted and underachieving and the homely feel of this album (the album title sort of hints at this) may not be to everyone’s tastes but I’m pleased I persevered with it. Fans of introspective alt-country and Wilco (and those Fleet Foxes) may find some reward here. www.jessepayneonline.com

It was tempting to throw Christopher Hipgrave to the Drone Zone and see how he fared with the dark side but I thought better of it in the end. Whilst certainly showing some nicely disturbing symptoms of drone’s disease his “Slow, With Pages of Fluttering Interference” (Low Point LP037) is more textured ambient minimalism in style and content, gently and patiently manipulative, with notes that hang in the air for what seems like ages before subtly veering course this way and that. An exquisite, fragile piece and perfect for a 42 minute meditation, in fact my scented candle barely flickered www.chrishipgrave.co.uk

An altogether briefer offering is this two track, 7 minute showing from Manchester duo Anna Kashfi (named after the first Mrs Marlon Brando), entitled “A Lonely Place” (Little Red Rabbit LRR 019). Both the title track and “Gold Day” are slow, swooning ballads given an additional lullaby feel by Sian Webley’s sweet to the point of sugary (not saccharine, note) vocal. The duo’s album “Survival” was well received in the national music press earlier this year and on the evidence of this all too short interest is likely to be an intriguing listen www.annkashfi.co.uk

Andy Votel as many of you may already know is an electronics musician, DJ and producer who is responsible for a number of left-field compilations including “Welsh Rare Beat”, “Folk is not a Four Letter Word” and its follow up “Prog is Not a Four Letter Word” and the wonderfully titled “Songs in the Key of Death” and “One Nation Under a Grave”. “Vintage Voltage” (Fat City Recordings FCCD032) is a cut and paste trawl through the b-music vaults courtesy of the renegade, subversive Votel and provides him with another opportunity for a catchy title (a play onJohn Cale’s “Vintage Violence”). Consisting of 13 tracks during which you get an audio guide to the synthesizer and a bewildering number (72, in fact) of vignettes of kitsch electronica from god knows where, you have to applaud the idea and the effort. And, for the most part, this is an oddly appealing bit of fun. However at around 69 minutes (or 4089 seconds as the blurb tells us) you’re tempted to get the blunderbuss from above the fireplace and drop the heaviest hint yet that the man keeping you up has outstayed his welcome. Less essential than you hoped it would be? Perhaps so, but this is still one to have fun with, do the deed and get then get the hell out before you’re found out. www.fatcityrecordings.com

The Moulettes are a five piece with a fair pedigree having appeared with and shared personnel with the likes of Mumford and Sons, Noisettes, Mystery Jets, Patrick Wolf and Band of Skulls amongst others. “Horses for Hearses” is a madcap burlesque sound, imagine Arkham Prison’s house band string-quintet being ridden bareback by the Tiger Lillies and you have something approaching an acoustic version of Perhaps Contraption (see August Rumbles). This is the music of the grotesque music hall albeit one on the fringe and populated by gypsies, misfits and insane jazzers. Really, it’s that good and Rock n’ Roll it ain’t. The title track, the live recording “Mad Tom of Bedlam” and “Cannibal Song” are all first-rate, the other three are variations on the title track (two remixes and a cover) all of which are interesting takes on a theme.

The album “Balling Jack” came out in the Summer and I’ve yet to hear that. I now realise how remiss that is of me. www.myspace.com/moulettes

And now Torchy’s getting tired, boys and girls, his batteries are getting very low and it’s time he went to slee………….

Rumbles for November was brought to you by Ian Fraser. Artwork, layout & direction by Phil McMullen - copyright Terrascope Online, November 2010