With artwork that seems inspired by the cover of Tracey Thorn's solo album A Distant Shore being as small hint at what this might sound like as you can get, or is it? This Boston/Rhode Island session bands forthcoming album Small Colors (out in September) that features guest appearances from members of The Perfect Disaster, Dif Juz and Boyracer among others.
The album opens with Bakchalarda a sort of drum and bass chill out song that may well be an old Tatar folk song and the vocals sound not too dis-similar to Anita Livstrand.
Easy is Anything but easy to figure out as there is an acoustic strummed almost folk song at its's heart, but it has all sorts of synth and other worldly sounds layered over it and the vocalist is almost as mannered as Bryan Ferry, this may take a while to grow on you and may work better without all the additional stuff just as an acoustic ballad.
No Romance is a gentle caress of a song to try to win some love in a town that has descended into riots and pain as they seem to try not convince themselves that things might be ok and they won't need to have Mark Wahlberg save the day.
Fester is a short quiet folk song that reminds me of Lucy Rose at the start of her career and a bit of Tracey Thorn.
That's How It's Always Been has ambient noises over the acoustic guitar and gentle unfolding story in the lyrics, with some wonderfully odd sounds accentuating the tale.
The Stars Or The Jungle has a slow drum beating the retreat or something similar that then has aircraft noises and what could be digeridoo building a pulse to signal you've taken off.
Holiday isn't a Madonna cover thankfully, but a cover of an early Bee Gees song, it's a quiet sort of Chamber indie song that gently leads us through memories of a particular person they describe as being a Holiday, that it sounds like you're the sort of Holiday spent more in a rain spattered miserable city centre than on a beach isn't a bad thing, it's a lot less overwrought than the original, and as ever all the best Bee Gees covers are of songs they made in the 60's.
Lampin has a funky bass-line and glitchy percussion and as far as I can tell isn't about Lampin anyone in particular and eventually some quite Chet Baker style brass comes in.
The Beautiful Golden Why is late night questions and thoughts over a carefully strummed acoustic with some textural sounds coming and going as it gets more wistful.
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The Sun Is Going To Shine is as cloudy a song as you could wish for, it sounds like a dark grey sky just prior to a big storm with the strings feeling like the rising wind as they try to make the sky go clear and get the sun to come out.
Bored And Lonely sounds like an angry punk song slowed down to a short and not too sweet acoustic punch up of a song.
If you Could Read My Mind is a perfect example of how to take a cliche and turn it on its head to make a totally effective cover that has none of the saccharine of Gordon Lightfoot's original.
Shipwrecked On Aspirin is an absolutely top song title and is as out there as you might expect from the title this is like going cold turkey after a truly wonky acid trip with swirling synths and all sort of weirdness as you end up hoping to be rescued anything to stop you going down.
Delirious Intention is a deep dub rumination with some Janet Kay or Lizzy style vocals this seems to be going for a Gregory Issacs style dubplate sound and getting close to pulling it off which is very cool indeed, It just make me want to hear them do more stuff in this vein.
Color is more like a Velvets meets Dif Juz and Dub Sex to make a very deep purple or black piece of music with dense fuzzy vocals a total change in direction and a jolt to the system and yes it really reminds me of Perfect Disaster too, I guess this is the song with members of Dif Juz and Perfect Disaster on it. This end of the album is where the real action is.
The album closes with another left turn to end with the seaside poetry of No Day At The Beach that sounds like something on an old Giorno Poetry System album or the Strings Of Consciousness song Midnight Moonbeams, it really shares a very similar delivery style and intent which for just a remarkable track I want to hear over and again.
Find out more at https://thepullofautumn.bandcamp.com/album/small-colors???https://www.facebook.com/rbmrecordsboston http://www.rbmrecords.com/
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