new music reviews authored by paul khimasia morgan

Sunday 17 February 2019

Two From The ‘Hood



Tim Burness
Interconnected
UK  Expanding Consciousness  EXPAND16  CD/DL  (2018)

In which Tim Burness teams up with Monty Oxymoron (The Vitamin B12, The Damned) on keyboards, Keith Hastings on bass, drummer Fudge Smith (ex Pendragon), rhythm programming courtesy of Julian Tardo, who also co-produced, engineered and mastered the album and Paul Pascoe.  Tim sings, plays guitar and synth parts and wrote all the material.  He adds the following statement to the copyright information on the sleeve; “However, as we all know, a little bit of copying here and there never hurt anyone” which made me chuckle.  And quite right.
Tim Burness was part of the new wave of British progressive rock in the 1980s with his band Burnessence.  I first came across him accompanying himself on acoustic guitar at the Brighton Festival of Freedom back in 1995.  Eight albums later, he’s at the cutting edge of what he terms “progressive pop-rock”.  He’s not alone; see Galahad’s continued existence, or Mandragora’s recent reunion at Rumbellion.  There’s also the current upward trajectories of ex-Levitation guitarists Bic Hayes’ Zofff and Terry Bickers’ duo with Pete Fij to consider, and Lewes Psych Festival going strong.  I saw Kavus Torabi & Steve Davis spinning Prog in London last year and found myself at a Nik Turner gig the other weekend.  Burness, however, is interested in conveying ideas as much as drifting off to a bitchin’ synth pad or digging an unusual time signature.  Throughout Interconnected there’s a seam of commentary that shows Burness’ interests; the health of the planet, society, philosophy and astrology.
The album kicks off with the super-positive and upbeat “Electric Energy”.  Burness displays an endearingly British vocal delivery even when he’s feeling particularly hopeless and desperate as on “I Am Afraid (Saturn Conjunct Pluto)”.  Here is the first evidence of his preoccupation with our current situation as a species; “Can we turn it around?  We’ve reached our limits.  He continues with the refrain “save us from idiots, save us from ourselves” on “Freedom”.  “Making It Up” is based around a beautiful piano and string synth arrangement, while the skewed, 60s-style jazz-rock riff of “Still Mumbling” could almost be the germ of a Stereolab track.
“Ants” is a paranoid waking dream propelled by a spooky backwards loop, where Burness presents himself as a newly self-aware drone; seeing for the first time the proverbial “glitch in the matrix”.  “Beautiful World” successfully evokes the mood of pre-Dark Side… -era Pink Floyd - lush Mellotron, rotary speaker effects on the guitar and vocal harmonies on the middle eight.  And appropriately wobbly, tape-saturated chords underpinning Julian Tardo’s guitar solo.  The disc finishes on a lighter note with the catchy sing-a-long “One More Time” showcasing saloon bar-style piano alongside Burness’ kooky lyrics about personal relations, or a quick smoke, or none of the above.
Burness asserts that the album is “Based on a concept of the interconnectedness of all things…”  This is a notion that also came to me one clement autumn afternoon in the early 90s while lying on the grass in rural parkland in Surrey…  An idea that resonates with a lot of people.  On the whole, a strong piece of work; strangely appealing.


The Emperors Of Ice Cream
Employees Of Ice Cream
UK  Self-released  no number  CD/DL  (2018)

Some superb Brighton-based slackness here, released at the cold end of 2018 from a group featuring Tim Cottrell, Joe Cutting, Sam Cutting, and Karl M V Waugh.  Mister Waugh has had his hand in a few other projects over recent years; DR:WR, Binnsclagg and the A Band for example.  While those projects are all of an experimental nature, the Emperors of Ice Cream are a traditional group of the vaguely “post-punk/rock” variety, pulling their moves partly from the US alt-rock bands we all loved so much.  These guys have been listening to their parents’ record collections and good thing too.  All hail Hanover and the paint-flecked flannel shirts within.  Previous output has included the Kickstarted Picture Pout/Small Time Hero  7”, and an ep, Second Names, from 2015, plus a cassette, This Thing, and a three-song limited cd less from 2016.
The superbly nihilistic “Nothing Belongs to You” sets the tone with its scratchy guitars, two note melody and repeated lyric, while “Oh!” is a cynical put-down of youthful selfishness; almost Pavement-y or Parquet Courts-ish in its initial moments.  There’s an almost early 70s pop sensibility about the doubled vocals and the barest hint of that elusive Tony Visconti-esque production sound.  Like a forgotten Malkmous ballad, “Ain’t Got The Money” says “we’re just gassin’ so it’s fine” and “you ain’t got the right lies” which resonates with me for reasons I’m not entirely sure about.
“Test Case” is like putting 1960s Venice Beach sociopaths Love in a stuck lift for four days without their medicine - all antagonistic guitars and cyclical white-out rhythm section.  Guitars are in their respective corners; panned hard left and right, all the better to absorb their demented counterpoint.
“The Sunshine Song” a cruelly distressed wah-wah pedal is deployed on this brutally short track.  Over way too soon.  The genius “Can I Lie Down In The Snow”  is probably the most entertaining song I’ve come across about mental distress, (if that is what its actually about).  Punkish buzzsaw guitars and a chant-a-long lyric.  “What You Did” is nine and a half minutes of epic-ness reminiscent of the unsettling vibe of Charlottefield’s Noisestar improvisation, only we’re in the modern digital recording era now and the track ends with the guitars producing remarkable digital feedback drones.  You can really hear the difference in how analogue and digital pedals sound, I think.
Employees of Ice Cream was recorded and mixed by Mark Roberts at Brighton Electric and a very high production was achieved with the material.  As much as I love the lo-fi, garagey-sounding approach to recording bands – “Give Me Less” on the Emperor’s Less is a good example - I love being able to discern the words just as much.  I believe these guys gig a fair bit so if you get the opportunity to see ‘em, take it.




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