This piece was written by...me...for a change!
The opening track, What If, is one of the former, with a heavy drone, not reminiscent of any particular influence, but with an almost Beatlesesque backing vocal thrown in, treated to sound as though it’s coming out of the receiver of an old-fashioned telephone. The lyrics sung here are “you grease my palms with profit”; a nice turn of phrase, and the correlation between the greasy riff and the lyrics is surely not coincidental. Not a tune to be whistled by
The Only One comes along next, and this is different again, sounding almost like something that Trans-Global Underground might have conjured up ten years ago. Again sounding boomy and cavernous, a lone vamped and phase-shifted guitar playing a minor seventh chord is at the heart of this, with a trance beat and atmospheric sampled soprano rounding out the riff. I Move On Wheels continues with the unsettling, almost turgid direction that the CD has by now established, but now throws a robotic element into the mix, and a darker song than any that has yet been heard emerges. It’s full of character and would still be a strong number in isolation (or on a compilation of other artist’s material) but here doesn’t stand out sufficiently from the general template.
A change of direction is provided by Ascension Day, forsaking the downward path for more of a traditional rock song, with a wonderful sequence of keyboard chords illuminating the chorus. If the production were other than it is, they might almost be celestial-sounding… A long guitar solo starts at 4:09 and extends for a minute and a half, fading the song out in Classic Rock fashion. This number feels like a generalized testament to the music of a generation (man!) And then Northern Lights brings us back to the punk elements inherent in Adrian Shaw’s music, but with just about all the instruments treated in some way or another, it remains within his overall ambit of dark British psychedelia. The central element is a heavily tremelo’d and phased guitar, surrounded by a cloud of early Pere Ubu-ish keyboard sounds and transitory voices. Preoccupied follows it, and this one highlights the blues influence on British psych, with a classic riff underplaying the weird harmony vocals – all invoking a dreamlike state. The pace is funereal, but after three and a half minutes a Gong-ish rearrangement twists the basic riff through ninety degrees for a minute or so, following which a final chorus climaxes into a perfect ending.
Another facet of psychedelia is explored on Stalking Horse, with a 60’s-influenced arrangement, acoustic guitars and strings to the fore, of a subtly changing composition which seems to shift between keys constantly. There is also some exceptionally good keyboard playing the way, before another Beatles touch comes along with the muted trumpet voices in the middle section – reminiscent of “Strawberry Fields Forever” for a fleeting moment. When these voices (they were probably played on a keyboard) return for the coda, the rapid runs bring Mercury Rev to mind, on something like their “See You On The Other Side” album.
The opening bars of Placebo pull the exact same trick with the brass voices but without giving the impression of repetition, as this is an entirely different song; groove-based, still latent with something that’s not optimism, but managing to convey the psych Beatles influences all the same. There’s another hint of early 90’s trance in the way the percussion has been arranged, too. And now the influences are coming thick and fast, with an inevitable comparison to the Stranglers track “Golden Brown” prompted by the keyboards in British Grenadiers. Probably more indicative of where Shaw’s heart lies, the multitracked vocals, treated with some time-based effect (phasing again?) put this right back in the court of psychedelia. (Though I suppose “Golden Brown” wasn’t a million miles away, come to think of it.)
Mongrel offers bark and bite in equal measure, with perhaps an early-80’s feel to the minimalistic synth bleeps (like the less commercial moments of the Associates, e.g. on their Fourth Drawer Down album) while the chorus is Bevis Frond territory, distorted rhythm guitar sloshing everywhere until, of all things, some harmonized lead guitar playing triplets invokes….Hotel California by the Eagles! No, the song is nothing like that, but it certainly made me sit up. Next, In The Gutter throws another off-kilter queasy riff and shifted vocals over a pedestrian bass / drum pattern, stiffened with the steady half-snarl, half-drone of a dark, distorted guitar. The choral arrangement on the chorus provides a brilliant hook, but I didn’t like the overhyped drums that punctuate this passage. (You can’t have everything.)
The CD closes out with One Last Drink For The Band. A sleazy wah’d guitar solo played by Aaron Shaw heralds another 60’s-influenced vocal melody and arrangement. This could be something off a very early David Bowie album. Some classic blues-influenced guitar comes and goes, along with 60’s keyboard parts and melodic voice, before moving into a final wah guitar wigout that seems to last three or four minutes, and once again brings a bit of traditional rock to the table. Old School Rock Died yesterday? Nah!
Well, this CD will polarize opinions tremendously. It’s not one of those psychedelic trip type of albums, consisting instead of a number of vignettes - but the whole is greater than the sum of its parts, all the same. Personally I think it’s a total psychedelic masterpiece, very 60’s influenced, but with nods along the way to the 70’s, 80’s and 90’s, and never becoming derivative. Best of all it’s *cheap*, available from Woronzow’s website for the princely sum of £3. How can you go wrong with that?! Go on – it might be the best three quid you ever spent…
If Displaced Person had a weakness, it was (rather oddly, for a bass player’s album) in the rhythmic stakes: the bass and drum arrangements were too minimalistic to sit well with the overarching psychedelia. On Look Out, these instruments are perhaps better produced – the opening track I Don’t Think So has a more ‘live’ drum sound, particularly
The second track in, Another Face, is a beautiful song with piano and acoustic guitars as the lead instruments and little or no percussion. Careful listening reveals that the bass parts may be conventional but they are not dull, ordinary or simplistic: the thought of writing out bass tablature for this gives me the shivers. The rootsy vibe continues through this number and on into Rhododendron Mile…and I don’t know if this is deliberate or not, but what’s becoming evident is that this album has a completely American feel to it in stark contrast to Displaced Person. Some of the songs and arrangements remind me of Alex Chilton’s Big Star – although the layered vocal arrangements here hint at something altogether more West Coast.
The dark side can’t be completely excised, and The Chosen, with its eerie keyboards and old school rock construction, is another one that brings the Bevis Frond comparison to the forefront. But maybe Ade’s participation in the Frond is the reason why, and we have to go farther back to get the true influence that’s at work here. There is certainly a touch of late 60’s American garage band rock here – the Electric Prunes being one possible reference point, although the atmospheric multitracked guitar solo with which the song fades out is a reminder that Shaw is not merely stuck in a 60’s timewarp. Few Are Called, the succeeding track, immediately underlines this with a jaunty piano riff which sounds almost like something Madness might have done. The alternation of major and minor chord progressions is cut up with radio/tape voices, and Shaw’s vocal line threads its way surefootedly through the strange landscape that this number paints. I think the way to describe this is "alt-psychedelia".
Remembrance of Things Past comes back to more familiar ground, and could be a forgotten song by The Kinks with some bubbling bass runs to listen out for, and an excellent warbling organ sound that I wish was higher in the mix. I’ve now cited two British references in succession, but the overall feel is still American, given the pace and arrangement of all the songs so far. I’ve not mentioned the dreaded word ‘country’ but it’s here, in a latent kind of way…in the same way that bands as diverse as REM and The Byrds have country influences in their music.
Father’s Day starts off with a While My Guitar Gently Weeps kind of motif. One very effective thing about this album is the way that all the songs are paced about the same – mid-to-slow, without speed-ups or slowdowns to disrupt the flow. Father’s Day maintains this well, and includes some very decent guitar soloing and the best drum sounds heard yet on the CD. The bass also seems to be picking up in terms of melodic complexity but never enough to become flashy. The song itself is fairly squarely within the tradition of the aforementioned George Harrison number, and so the Beatles / 60’s influences are still there (but the song in question is probably among the most American-sounding of the Fab Four’s output).
Father’s Day segues fairly smoothly into an instrumental called Oh, To Be Young, where the lead instrument is an envelope-filtered guitar over a rootsy, countryish backing of acoustic guitars and (rather splendidly) mandolins. The plaintive melody line and alternating major / minor chords make this a more unconventional affair than that description might suggest.
A Modern Man strikes out in another direction, with the wavering voice and keyboard intro suggesting early Pink Floyd…but an overdriven rhythm guitar on the verse hauls this back into more mainstream territory. However the song preserves the psychedelic motif with plinky keyboard arpeggios and “out there” vocals, along with some very nice squelchy psych guitar effects – fast-sweep flanging or something like that. The Floyd associations gather strength in the quiet passages, where a vocal line similar to ‘Brain Damage’ (Dark Side Of The Moon) combines well with a 60’s Farfisa organ sound. This is the most psychedelic track yet on Look Out.
Cool Blue Reminder puts a dance hall soul drum sound with a claustrophobic buzzing guitar riff and small-room reverb vocals, intoning an atonal bluesy melody. The chorus seems to be composed entirely of wavering, shimmering treated vocals over the intense, inward-looking drum/guitar arrangement. It’s very strange…probably the trippiest bit of the album, which closes with Childhood’s End. Which way is this going to go, towards the 60’s psych or will it pick up on the American influences that were prevalent earlier in the album? The answer is the former, as this song is another percussionless piece with picked acoustic guitars, almost flowery vocals and a spacey keyboard melody near the top of the mix…
No doubt I am imagining this, but I think the story of this CD is that Adrian Shaw wanted to make an album with a more American feel to it, and initially succeeded: but the late 60’s psych influences won out. The running order of the songs probably contributes to this notion, as there is a progression evident – which is one of the album’s strengths: it definitely feels more like a body of work than Displaced Person does. And as with that album, this one is available online from Woronzow for just three quid. Well worth checking out.
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