- Label: 'Last Night From Glasgow'
- Genre: 'Indie'
- Release Date: '28.11.25.'
Our Rating:
Certain Stories is the third album by Non Canon who are the solo project of Barry Dolan from Oxygen Thief. The album is mainly solo and was mixed by Rich Mandell and mastered by Dan Coutant.
The album opens with The Curse Of Fatal Death that opens like a plinky plonky reply to Motorheads Killed By Death, only this is a lot less brutal musically, while they try to avoid talking about doom gloom and death, they are trying to avoid all the terrible stuff happening all around, the cellos come in and the hopes of escaping all the horror that might happen if they dare to step outside today.
The Last Command to make sure you bury your dead in the sand and other dark thoughts are ruminated on, over an interesting guitar figure, strings and electronics making this sound like a British Silos with an electronica edge, downbeat darkly looking for answers.
Just Me In The House By Myself thinking about dark things from repatriation to waxworks being removed from display, this is a slow acoustic strummed list song for the disaffected lock in trying to find reasons for hope to still exist, the trumpets provide a rare ray of hope.
The single Wimmelbilderbuch is a brief vignette on being mistaken for someone else and not trying to hide his identity, while still wanting to change enough, to be more than just another face in the crowd.
New Coke just as addictive as old coke, the strings lead us into the glockenspiel led exploration of how your diet matters, why your tragic addiction to New Coke has torn you apart, if only you could get hold of some Tab instead, your psychosis and fatigue might not overwhelm you, allowing for some relief.
45496 is Non Canon's number apparently, this has Pete Fraser's cool sax floating through the sparse percussion and electronica flourishes. Permafrost is based on a poem by Suzannah Evans and is less chilly than the Permafrost Magazine were stranded on, this delves into the curiosity for ways to come to terms with leaving the wastelands for a more traditional house and life.
The Cave Of Treasure we all spend time chasing, wanting to be surrounded by riches, be they musical or artworks, or just our loved ones, the female vocals add cool harmonies amid the existential ennui Barry appears to be battling against.
Pseudonymous is a slow folk song for trying to find real meaning in a world where everything is advertising and you can't escape being stuck in the loop of commerciality, choice lines re-worked amongst the sparse beauty of the backing.
For Dave Fisher is a slow tribute to a friend and teacher who has gone, I'm not sure which musical Dave Fisher is being sung about, but it seems he gave Barry some sound advice, on to how to be a cool interesting musician on the Highways and byways of the music world.
Jool's Annual Hootenanny seemed like it was a perfectly timed arrival, my first listen to this was a day after I had a brief chat with Jools himself at my day job, this is about how Barry still gets excited by New Years Eve, he allows his partner to have an early night and then sits down with a drink or two to see Jools Hootenanny, the annual party recorded in August or September with all its false bonhomie and drunken singing, before the guitars go off on one.
The album closes with The Sirens Of Time one last rumination on how time changes everything and yet everything stays the same, while we chase round and round in circles once more. Make sure you wrap up tight and take proper shelter from the coming storm, that needs a full choir to sing the chorus, with a cool indie guitar solo helping you to weather everything going on.
Find out more at https://shop.lastnightfromglasgow.com/products/non-canon-certain-stories-lp-cd-dl https://www.facebook.com/noncanon555 https://linktr.ee/dolanthology https://noncanon.bandcamp.com/album/certain-stories
