BARI WATTS – MARC BOLAN: A TALE UNTOLD

(book from https://www.ataleuntold.com)

Guitarist, songwriter, sound engineer and now author Bari Watts will need no introduction to regular readers of the Terrascope. His ‘Marc Bolan: A Tale Untold’ is an impressively weighty self-published paperback which brings clarity to the final period in the life of Marc Bolan - one of Britain’s most colourful pop icons, leader of the acoustic duo Tyrannosaurus Rex plus creative director and song-writer of glam-rockers T-Rex, and an artist who presumably needs even less introduction to our readers than Bari does himself.

The book is described as being an attempt to dispel over forty years of oft-repeated, erroneous and misleading information and the direct result of five years of painstaking research, and I can easily believe that it’s taken that long; but to me at least it’s immediately obvious that this is also something considerably more than a well-researched book. I’ve read a LOT of well researched books. They tend to be written by students of the subject in every sense of the word, the most detailed of them obviously owing more to the author’s university training than to any real attempt to enlighten, delivered in the form of a thesis and with absolutely everything cross-referenced and annotated¹ to the n’th degree²

This is different. It’s all here. Interviews with the director, crew members and even featured guests from Marc Bolan’s Granada TV series, and a myriad other people who worked with and were close to Marc during his life, including his close friend and producer Tony Visconti. The events leading up to Bolan’s death in September 1977 and the aftermath are also dealt with in appropriately forensic detail, including previously unseen police photographs, and interviews with members of the emergency services who attended the car smash in Barnes. The sequence of events following his death are also documented, including the mystery of the individuals who gained access to his home just hours afterwards, removing many of his personal belongings for goodness knows what nefarious purpose. The difference is though that Bari Watts is able to get under the skin of the story and relate it from the inside, rather than that of an outsider looking in, which is the usual fate of a researcher. As a genuine rock star and a musician himself, Watts tells it the way he understands we want the story to be told – vividly, correctly, entertainingly and with both sympathy and understanding as well as insight.

I’d say this is pretty essential read for both social historians and fans of Bolan’s work. I’d never really thought of myself as a fan if I’m honest, but given I’ve held on to my 1971 cassette tape of ‘Electric Warrior’ all these years and still enjoy it whenever I play it, I guess I must be. Either way I found this absolutely riveting. Nice work, Bari! (Phil)

TURTLE SKULL – BEING HERE

(LP, CD, Digital on Art as Catharsis and Copper Feast Records)

Australian psychedelic rock band Turtle Skull’s second full-length LP is an enjoyable summer release, as it’s full of sunlight and warmth.  It’s a fine slice of melodic pop psych, and fans of bands like early Temples will find much to love within.  The band’s statement of intent is to blend heavy fuzz-laden guitars and crashing cymbals in the backing track with catchy melodies and excellent vocal harmonies up front, to create light-and-shade simultaneously, rather than serially.  To this scribe’s ears, those pleasurable, accessible tunes and vocals overshadow the intended underlying heavy distortion and volume, so light dominates heavy, and there’s nothing wrong with that.

Turtle Skull’s lyrical topics include making the most of living in the moment, putting down our phones and getting some fresh air or diving into the sea, and taking personal responsibility for our actions.  Their sound is well-balanced between Dean McLeod’s hulking guitar lines and new band member Ally Gradon’s varied keyboards.  Layered on top are those exquisite harmonies, with McLeod, Ally Gradon, and drummer Charlie Gradon all contributing and combining their voices.

One track, “It Starts with Me,” reminds me of Thee Oh Sees with its stabbing melody. The final two tracks stretch things out compared to their six economical predecessors, with the slow burning “Modern Mess” moving along methodically and hypnotically.  Even longer album closer “Moon & Tide,” clocking in at nearly nine minutes, is likewise slow-paced and powered by McLeod’s thunderous guitar.  The lyrics intone “I am falling in love with all of the people in my life.”  If that’s what happens in life down under, I’m packing my bags for Oz to escape from all the negativity and cruelty in the state of contemporary society here where the toilet water swirls in the opposite direction.  The song and album wrap with around a minute of a capella guitar distortion, unusual for a record where the melody is everything and more akin to something one would expect from, say, Dinosaur Jr.

On Being Here, Turtle Skull plunks appealing melodies and harmonies on top of heavy instruments for a distinct psych sound.  The recipe easily could’ve gone sideways, but they make it work, so props to the band.

(Mark Feingold)

NORTH SEA RADIO ORCHESTRA – SPECIAL POWERS
(LP/CD/DL https://northsearadioorchestra.bandcamp.com/album/special-powers)

DEAD SPACE CHAMBER MUSIC – THE BLACK HOURS
(LP/CD/DL from https://dscm.bandcamp.com/album/the-black-hours)

HARESS – SKYLARKS
(LP/DL from https://haress.bandcamp.com/album/skylarks)

Recently, while on “the Socials”, I mentioned that I had misplaced my musical mojo (other monthlies presumably still exist), but that three releases (two new and one not so new) had done much to restore my enthusiasm for new recorded music. I lumped them together as ‘pastoral’, an inconvenient and not especially accurate catch-all, by which I meant that they were generally measured and meditative without being overly troubled by pesky beats, with which I have become increasingly unenamoured of late. They also exhibit both fascinating amalgams and contrasts of light and shade.

To the light, then. North Sea Radio Orchestra is a contemporary music ensemble led by Craig Fortnam, who may also be familiar to The Reader through his work with Arch Garrison. Special Powers blends Fortnam’s exemplary ear for a folk tune with considerable classical compositional talents. Here be melodies. Sweeps and shades of Debussy and Vaughan Williams win out over electronic bleeps to mark out majestic instrumental opener ‘Mansions in Eternity’. It’s how you wish A Winged Victory for the Sullen would sound more often, if only someone gave them a slap. Much of the vocal heavy lifting is courtesy of Chantelle Pike, whose balanced tones sound neither overly rustic nor overwrought, contributing to the overall feeling of lightness of being without sounding lightweight, such as on the breezy ‘Hearty’ and beautiful reverie of ‘All Alice Like’. The mostly Fortnam voiced title track is a sheer delight that evokes his Arch Garrison alter-ego with the added layer of turn of the 70s Tull orchestration. And isn’t music a wonderful thing? The odd substituted note here, a rearrangement there, and you have the basis for ‘The Bucket Of Water Song’ by the Tiswas lot. There’s an extra point, right there. It ends on a fittingly high note (metaphorically) with the lengthy and imposing Yeats-penned ‘The Players Ask For A Blessing On The Psalteries And On Themselves’ (a title you feel the erstwhile Bopping Elf would have sold his soul for twice over). When an album finishes leaving you with a broad smile a far-away expression and a glad heart then you know you’ve been well and truly got. Such are Craig and co.’s Special Powers.

As its title implies, The Black Hours by Bristol-based quartet Dead Space Chamber Music is an altogether more foreboding arrangement of female voice, strings and percussion evoking vaulted ceilings and dark, dank recesses. Released a few years ago, and evoking Dead Can Dance and Texan favourites Book Of Shadows, their sound conjures the Gothically macabre (‘Liement Me Deport’) and the ghostly sombreness you might associate with Anna Von Hausswolf (‘Bryd One Brere’). They also have a good stab at Welsh wassail (‘Mari Lwyd/Morfa’r Frenhiness’) on which they stamp their spectral trademark, building to a powerful, goosebump inducing crescendo. However, the cornerstone of this most splendid and impactful of releases is ‘The Pit/Dissolved in Ashes’, a title that probably conveys more than all this verbiage and represents a pinnacle of experimental (and one suspects semi-improvised) soundscape of dark shades. If you were looking for visual representation, think Johnny Nice Painter from the Fast Show. The Black Hours proves the adage that the darker it is the lighter it gets, as if being sonically keel-hauled is the ideal therapy to banish any blues. Remember to Gothic or Go Home, as they say.

Emerging from the malleable Shropshire/Welsh borders (a veritable tear in the fabric of reality, take it from me), and with a pedigree including Bonnacons of Doom, Hey Colossus and Kling Klang, Haress trade more in brooding, and eerily dense textures than their three guitar and drums configuration might suggest.  They are also more bewitchingly folk than classically influenced although even here you need to squint to make out the far-off hamlet of Trad Arr, leastways until the grand denouement. It’s pastoral if you like your terrain more rugged and the seating a little uncomfortable, to the extent that packing antihistamine and wearing elasticated ankles might be advisable. This is bittersweet, at once tranquil and a little edgy. ‘Blood Moon’ builds the sound, Liz Still’s ethereal calls heralding the signature changes. The swampy ‘King David’ doubles down on the repeat and circular motifs and you’d be unsurprised if Wil Oldham or Daniel Higgs started a-croakin’ or a-hollerin’ over the top. ‘Coin Clippers’ emerges comparatively briefly but purposefully from the mists of a bleak, outlaw infested landscape, but really, it’s ‘Skylarks’ that we’re all here for. Ushered in by a distinctly West Coast-style noodling, this here’s the vocal track with its repeat refrain and infectious singalong prompted by an insistent guitar riff and melodeon accompaniment before the ‘Skylarks choir’ pile in, in place of the usual live audience. Over 14 joyous minutes, not a second of which is wasted, it burrows its way in and stays there indefinitely. That’ll be name, rank, serial number and Skylarks chorus, then, soldier. If Special Powers represents (more or less) the light and The Black Hours is the shade, then Skylarks occupies an approximate middle ground. Like Special Powers it’s a contender for your writer’s album of the year so far, while The Black Hours is a belated find to keep and to treasure. In fact, should anyone out there be tempted to organise it then a triple bill concert in a suitably impressively spiritual or manorial setting would be just the ticket.

(Ian Fraser)

Thought Bubble – Mostly True
(All formats from https://bubble.bandcamp.com/album/mostly-true)

Their seventh album, would you believe, and the second with vocalist Peter Gelf, sees ex-Glowpeople Chris Cordwell and Nick Raybould slip further from their danceable festi-psych and into deeper, ever shifting currents.

Aside from offering sage advice, ‘It’s Best Not to Look at the Sun’ confirms Gelf’s voice as something of a coupling of less parched Bill Callahan and passable but less histrionic Scott Walker, as he intones over polyrhythmic electronics and percussion. The outcome is that it occupies an intriguing space where Ex-Easter Island Head docks successfully with Peter Gabriel circa Security, and which hints at a strong stylistic template for much of Mostly True. Menacing machines and Raybould’s elementally engaging tub-thumping propel the insistent and compelling ‘Rattlepool’. Should you have any cobwebs, present them here for blasting now. One of the strongest yet measured cuts here is ‘Three Apples’: its symphonic synths, choppy guitars and more conventional drumming indicative of Hawkwind during one of their most striking and evocative (mostly) instrumental interludes. Weighing in at almost 10 minutes, ‘Anna’ provides the album’s most aerobic moment. Featuring spoken word vocal by Zinnia Su in addition to Gelf’s crooning, this closing number overlays swoony introspection with hyperbolic beats and provides a fittingly euphoric climax. It remains to be seen in what direction Thought Bubble’s restless questing takes them next. I have a feeling that it won’t be too long before we find out.

(Ian Fraser)

HAYDEN PEDIGO – I’LL BE WAVING AS YOU DRIVE AWAY

(LP, CD, Digital on Mexican Summer Records)

There’s something about acoustic guitarist Hayden Pedigo that makes him so endearing.  You see the eccentricities – the run for office on the city council of Amarillo, Texas, the nudie suits, and the Motor Trilogy albums, so named because of their somewhat odd cover art by Jonathan Phillips (this is the conclusion, after 2021’s Letting Go and 2023’s The Happiest Times I Ever Ignored).  Plus, there are the rather obscure references in some of his titles, this latest from a heartbreaking episode of the old TV show ‘Little House on the Prairie.’  And then he picks up his guitar and you’re locked in, whisked away into the delightful, intricate melodic world of his composing and playing.  If you watch any of the videos of him playing, the calmness and concentration of the skinny kid in a cowboy hat are magnetic.

There are flashes of John Fahey and Robbie Basho herein, but Pedigo has carved out a unique path among fingerpickers.  I’ll Be Waving… has a more filled-out sound than its two predecessors in the trilogy.  The seven tracks variously include touches of electric guitar, piano, Mellotron, violin, pedal steel, and a small string section.  The songs contain his trademark of going full-stop mid-song and beginning a new section, which can sound like an entirely new song, before returning to the original melody and tempo.  This is perfectly embodied in my favorite track, “All the Way Across,” which starts with an intro, then a beautiful, quiet, contemplative melody in 4/4 that sounds very different from the intro, then another stop and re-start into a gentle waltz, almost like a minuet, then another round or two into the previous melody lines.  It’s bloody gorgeous.

The fascinating “Smoked” makes haunting use of Mellotron chorus astride Pedigo’s minor chord acoustic jangle.  It reminds me very faintly of some of the acoustic guitar playing in Jim Croce’s “Time in a Bottle.”  The multiple sections are cordoned off by two ascending chords, simple but somehow so powerful.  There are so many moments in this record – such as Pedigo’s use of harmonics in “Hermes,” counterbalanced by subtle strings and synths and his own circular picking.  He can make his guitar sound like one of those 19^th Century music boxes with the round, jagged punched metallic disks, rich and warm.

The closing title track is a perfect composition, with intro, interstitial tissue, and a wistful main body that’s part Wyndham Hill, part Merle Travis or Doc Watson rag, with sensitive pedal steel by Nicole Lawrence. It’s followed in some versions of the album by a bonus track with Hayden reciting the credits.  That alone is the sort of tongue-in-cheek he’d do, but going full-on Hayden Pedigo, the voice is treated with weird effects.  And how many artists thank you for listening to the record at the end?

All three albums in the Motor Trilogy are well worth your time, and with this one he goes out on a magical note.  He also snuck in a live album in 2024, Live in Amarillo, Texas, which is also wonderful, containing some alternate versions of his songs.  Pedigo’s tunes can be melancholy or can bring sunshine into your happenings, depending on your mood.  But his music is always lush and soothing, gentle and playful, and you tend to overlook the elegant technical complexity of his playing.  This is one of my favorite records of the year, do give it a listen.

(Mark Feingold)

SAILOR FREE - SPIRITUAL REVOLUTION PART 3

Available on Tide Records

Italian quartet Sailor Free have been recording for nearly 35 years. We reviewed their sophomore effort (The Fifth Door) 30 years ago, so you could say we’ve been championing their psychedelic progressive music (almost) since the beginning. Their latest concludes singer / songwriter / bassist / keyboardist David Petrosino’s multi-media Spiritual Revolution concept-trilogy which began in 2012 and is loosely inspired by Tolkein’s Silmarillion and the Spiritual Revolution movement. As with many concept albums it tells a story through its lyrics which are included in the accompanying booklet.

    A brief overture welcomes listeners via a triumphal drum march before we encounter ‘Incognito,’ which can be interpreted as the descent into anonymous isolation since COVID rearranged our lives and interpersonal relationships: “The pain is all around/Well masked and isolated.” But we can overcome this bump in the road: “Friends, we’re pointed out/restrained but not defeated.” The song segues easily into heavy rock, progressive strings, and orchestral pomp.

     ‘All I Need’ serpentines around dreamier segments with Cecelia Amici’s subtle vocal backing presenting a quiet counterpoint to Stefano Barelli’s strident guitar solos. ‘The Ghoul Within’ is appropriately swathed in a Sabbathian metal overcoat, but the Moody Blues-like ‘So Beautiful’ offers a calm after the storm, again featuring Amici’s yearning vocals. ‘Not For Me’ is another emotional triumph, with no less than five backing singers and the six-member Cecelia Amici Vocal Ensemble enhancing the atmospheric presentation which also benefits from lovely low whistle and shanai from Stefano Ribeca.

     But don’t get too comfortable - ‘Let Me In’ offers distorted vocals, ominous keyboards, and pummeling guitars to get the blood flowing before the playful ‘Disappear’ delivers a nice respite, complete with Ribeca’s sax flourishes and some nifty fretwork from Barelli. The full accompaniment of backing singers, dual guitars AND bass assemble for the spiritual awakening delivered by ‘Gambling.’ Petrosino’s self analysis  permeates his lyrics: “Need a new established faith/Need to work and find my way…God save the human nation/So it don’t have to weigh on me.” One of the Spiritual Revolution’s aims is to help each of us to find the power within ourselves to work together to make the world a better place. The concluding part of Sailor Free’s trilogy offers guidance and hope for all to reach that goal.

(Jeff Penczak)

HIMMELAYA - LOST HORIZON

Double LP, Double CD www.fruitsdemerrecords.com

Himmelaya are a new group put together by Jochen Oberlack of Bellerophon records in Dusseldorf. Jochen got in touch with Fruits de Mer label owner Keithabout an instrumental project, after discussions Britt Ronnholm from Swedish duo Us and Them was suggested as adding spoken vocals plus Astralasia’s Marc Swordfish being heavily involved and this beast of an album is the result.

Other friends are also along for the journey including nick nicely, Schizo Fun addict and the Lost Stoned Pandas amongst others.It has taken a long time to come together with contributions coming from multiple countries.

Things start off with the relatively straight forward rock of ‘Belle Du Jour’ before we enter a gnarly ‘Black Forest’, sparkling guitars and keys over a steady motorik beat. A lengthy ‘Ashra Shirley’ clocks in at over ten minutes, a tangled web of sounds, eerie and dense. ‘Deutscher Herbst’, rattles along at a faster pace before we descend into the languid pool of ‘Celestial Orb’, a drowsy song full of eastern promise, the lengthy , drifty ‘Shangrilaya’ rounds out the first of the LP’s.

A fine,funky song entitled ‘Floh De Ho!’, introduces the second of the LP’s in fine style, before long we encounter the ‘Autobahn to Dusseldorf’ where a great deal of concentration is required on this stretch, as the title suggests it is firmly in the Krautrock style. We’ve now taken a side road and chilled a bit to ‘Komets Berrattels’, however it is now getting dark and so into the twilight world of ‘Nimbus Thitherward’ we descend, before ending our journey in the frenetic centre of ‘Metronopolis’ a great way to end this trip.

(Andrew Young)

LA NOUVELLE MUSIQUE- S/T

LP www.fruitsdemerrecords.com

La Nouvelle Musique comprise of Joanna Beck and Ian De Silva, a London based duo who together create some rather beguiling music, Joanna writes, sings and plays piano and bass and Ian writes and plays guitar. They put out a very limited 7” single a few months ago, but this is their debut album and what a gem it is too.

 From the very first notes of the gorgeous ‘The Mirror’, to the closing song ‘Epitaph’, it oozes class. Icy, frozen Nico’esque vocals meet over a palette of pianos, keyboards, guitars, bass and drums, Joanna handles most of the vocals but Ian does sing the mariachi inflected ‘Spirit Level’.

An early highlight for me is their delicate, folky cover of Sandy Denny’s ‘Crazy Lady Blues’ Joanna’s background in theatre and film lend the songs a cinematic feel none more apparent than in a rousing ‘Catalonia’, another highlight is the following intimate ‘Polestar’.

The most obvious single on the album is ‘Still Life’, a fine, up tempo pop rock song.  ‘Forest Fire’, is the second of the two songs sung by Ian, it’s a lightly orchestrated song with a nod of its head to a certain gilded palace of sin, and it features some fine organ and guitar throughout. This wonderful debut album ends suitably enough with ‘Epitaph’, although I’m very much hoping it won’t prove to be their epitaph. It’s a fine way to end the album, dripping pianos and lovely vocals.

SOFT HEARTED SCIENTISTS – THE PHANTOM OF CANTON

CD  www.softheartedscientists4.bandcamp.com

Over the course of an hour and seventeen minutes, in the company of the Welsh wizards Soft Hearted Scientists we are treated to a wonderful place wherein Syd Barrett meets Lewis Carroll in a field of foxgloves with dragonflies and sunflowers.

The album is a psychedelically infused concept of sorts, for anyone who has felt a sense of identity loss during times of crises. It’s an ambitious album taking in elements of 1960’s psychedelia and folk rock music, early prog and electronic music. The band consists of Nathan Hall who writes ,sings, plays guitar and keyboards, along with Dylan Line keyboards, electronics and sound effects, Paul Jones six and twelve string electric and acoustic guitars and mandolin, Michael Bailey bass and producer Frank Naughton keyboards, all drums, engineering and production.

With a brief welcome with ‘Phantom Hello’ we enter the ‘Phantom of Canton’, to be greeted by a strange thicket of foxgloves in ‘Foxglove Song’, allowing the band to stretch out a bit before setting seed, a questing ’Hello, Hello’ brings forth jumping beans and Sunflowers, meanwhile patrolling Dragon flies have been alerted, along with fireflies and bees. ‘Fly by Dragonfly’ is everything a song by that name should be, a dreamy reverie, but beware every apple has a worm inside it, all of which leads us to the beckoning chasm of ‘Approaching The Canyon’ and The Canyon (smile of the sun-eyed woman) where we explore the difference between fantasy and love, with a nice wig out with electric guitar, organ and electronics, excellent stuff.

After a brief intermission we meet the unattainable ‘Wonder Girl’ and attend ‘The Cloud Parade’ at the sea side. ‘The Trapdoor Opens’ to the ‘Trapdoor In the Sky’, where our dreams take on a proggy celestial madness, mindful that we must obey ‘The Laws Of Physics’. After another take on ‘The Cloud Parade (Submarine reprise)’, we sing a ‘Song For My Sunflower’ pretty groovy it is too, this trip ends with  ‘Golden Times’  a song in multiple parts, dissolving into trippy dubbiness and laughter. ’A Phantom Farewell’, bids us goodbye,  a short 1920’s sounding lo fi wax cylinder type recording of a guitar refrain, this is a great album, seek it out and your life will be all the better for it.

NATHAN O’FLYNN-PRUITT - SONGS FROM BEHIND A MOUNTAIN

(LP from Figure & Ground)

I don’t have an Easy Listening section in my LP collection, but if I did this debut album from Nathan O’Flynn-Pruitt, ‘Songs from Behind a Mountain’, would be filed as far away from it as humanly possible. 

Opening song ‘Great Big World’ sets the tone for the record, Nathan’s vocals sounding closer to a death rattle than merely world-weary as he croaks ‘People who hate losers and never played a game in this life / Never took a risk so never found themselves behind’. One rather gets the impression that there’s some unfortunate life experiences behind the words, and this is confirmed on ‘Path and Time’ which features rural blues style fingerpicking and roughly strummed chords before launching into harrowing descriptions of childhood memories ‘The dog I killed by mistake as a kid / Led our way down this gravel road that led us here’.

Fortunately, perhaps, it’s not all Sturm und Drang. A former exponent of the experimental noise scene now relocated to rural Humboldt County, California, Nathan often allows his guitar to speak for him, and when it does, his evocative primitive finger-style playing is offset by sometimes dazzling, almost hallucinatory fretwork. This is best heard on the fragile, at times almost beautiful ‘Guidance’, the longest track on the record and also the only instrumental. Part of me was left wondering what riches an entire album of guitar instrumentals might deliver; but on reflection, such albums are nearly two a penny right now, and Nathan O’Flynn-Pruitt’s lyrics are so raw, so emotional, that they mark this out as something not only unique but very special indeed.

(Phil McMullen)

² and this. Irritating after a while, isn’t it? Thankfully, there's none of this kind of nonsense.