Tuttle is 30 year old singer-songwriter Clayton J Elliott who’s been writing songs for over ten years. The four tracks on his EP, entitled ‘The Family Way’, are the first fruits of his decade of labour.
And what a bountiful collection they are. Opting for a restrained but pleasingly warped lo-fi Space-Blues, Tuttle masters the use of sparse arrangement to underpin his musings on life in the rat-race, an empty-headed woman, recent fatherhood and marriage. ‘Suited Slave’ lifts verbatim the opening lines of McCartney’s bridge from ‘A Day In The Life’ as Tuttle recounts the mundaneness of working-life to a suitably ponderous beat over which electronica and electric guitar occasionally flash. Both ‘Vacuous’ and ‘Struck Dumb’ remind me of Howard Devoto/Magazine; particularly the latter track where Tuttle refreshingly ditches the sentimental bulls**t that artists step into when a baby appears, opting instead for the stark but touching realisation that nothing really prepares you for this.
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Best of all is ‘Domestic Bliss’ that marries (sorry) his music and lyrics to great effect. The guitar arrangement and playing are superb - Tuttle understanding that less is more - while his honest portrayal of former pulse-raising days as an activist being replaced with the soporific drug of routine and responsibility (‘Change my Black Flag for the shopping bag’), is suitably cautionary.
‘Domestic bliss is killing me’ he bravely laments.
And how exactly, one can’t help but wondering, does Mrs. Tuttle feel about all this?
http://tuttle.atspace.com
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