Though I'd wondered if he was the victim of a low-rent Stalinesque action from his former frontman Chris Olley in Six By Seven, it seems guitarist Sam Hempton just pretty much walked away from that situation. Still, the question remained: what was he up to? Had he gone back to studying photography after the, er, glamour of it all?
Seems not, as now he's back in tow with three other guys from the Nottingham area who previously were most of another band called Manatee. Together, they rejoice under the amost stupidly unwieldy name EARTH THE CALIFORNIAN LOVE DREAM, and "In The Garden" is their first single.
And rather good it is too. It does have hints of SBS (it's in the spaced, rumbling intro and the middle eight), but mostly it's a full-throttle, pistons-thrashing rocker a la Stooges/ Thee Hypnotics, but with better dynamics and tightly coiled for impact. The Garden of Eden lyrics are pretty obvious, but I do really love the way bassist/ vocalist Huw Costin turns "I knew then I was born" into "I knew then I was baw -aw-aw-aw-aawnn." Very tasty.
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My goodwill struggles with B-side "Earth The Californian Love Dream", though, which is more of a straightahead rock'n'roll bruiser, but, I dunno...do we really need a fuzzily-recorded indie Motorhead? Getting shut of The Darkness looks like being a behemoth of a task as it is, so let's not make it any worse already, eh?
Still, nice A-side an' all that. Maybe they can harness the crap name with the crap song and be done with it. Benefit of the doubt for now.
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