Fruits Of The Deep is the latest album by The Woodentops a band whose now decades long career I have dipped in and out of over the years, often when it intersected with The Jazz Butcher, at times Rolo McGinty and his merrie band have mystified me, but this new album isn't one of those times, this is a cool interesting musical trip.
The musicians involved are Rolo McGinty, Simon Mawby, Frank De Freitas, Frank Byng, Richard Thomas, June Miles Kingston, Simon Wylie, Megan Owens, Stevon Russell, Paul Ashby, Ayne O'Keefe, Vesa Haapenen, Kyoko Sato, Jeff Miller, Angel Ashkin, Matt Chandler, Mal Darwen and Amy Leonard.
The album opens with the classic Indie pop sound of Liquid Thinking that has a nice floaty feel as Rolo explores the possibilities of what Liquid Thinking is about, are you pondering while a little bit drunk, you wander around allowing the catchy chorus to get easily stuck in your mind, while the tune dissolves into the jazzy outro.
Dream On takes a repeating acoustic guitar riff, then layers on the deep bass, synths bells, with all sorts, for an ambient indie dance song for all the dreamers, still hoping that better day will arrive, so we can all still dance to Loop Guru and Ultramarine like the future is still ours.
Ride A Cloud takes a gauzy bed of strings with floaty guitar, with layers, effects to get us out riding clouds like they are horses, giving this a rather marshmallow acid fried lyrical feel, with a slight Indian raga undertow.
Too Good To Stay opens with a good Stooges style riff and solid drums that gets built on, with insistent noises urging us all to keep on pushing that story and life onwards, the effects drench our senses, like we've been partying for a couple of days at least.
Lately sounds like it could have been written with Pat Fish as Rolo asks questions of a lover that has him questioning all of his recent behaviour.
Hotel is an ambient piece almost like found sounds recorded while wandering round a large hotel in the middle of the day.
Don't Stop has a good shuffling beat, with hazy vocals in an Alabama 3 style of indie dance rock, it has a very liquid feel to the way the bass works through this as they still believe in you.
Saturday Soundcheck is reflections on the life of a musician, while preparing for the next gig, The keyboard runs that come through the middle of the acoustic guitar are a real treat, as the horns pootle away, while being happy to have found their own place.
City Wakes is another soundscape of found sounds, ambient noises and slow brass with the feel of an Otto Preminger noir film.
Can't Stand Still takes an afrobeat rhythm, dancefloor percussion to get everyone up on the floor shimmying along, as if they are on a road march dance parade.
I Can Take It has more of a tropicalia feel of Brazilian sunshine beats with wide open spaces, as Rolo namechecks Honey Hush and other influences in his long search for total freedom of spirit and mind.
Traversing Heartbreak can happen to anyone, ships have met in the night had a wondrous interaction, then the next morning they are sailing off in different directions once more, this chilled lazy laid-back tune tries to get over the fact that this will only ever be a road side crush.
The Fisherman Leaves At Dawn weaves between ambient dance moods with intricate samples flowing in and out of the mix, like the vocals do, in parts it feels like it's raining in the studio, as the guitars extrude, bending stretching, train track percussion drives things along, till the disembodied narrator takes us into darker realms as Tsunamis arrive destroying everything in its way.
The album closes with Bathyscaphe that has a slow insistent beat, that dissolves into a walk through a cave, with odd noises coming out the walls at you. Slowly the sound rebuilds and dissolves once more, like you have turned a corner and can no longer hear the speakers, you turn another corner and they are back, this is disconcerting as you may turn the volume up and get a shock if you're not careful.
Find out more at https://woodentops.bandcamp.com/album/fruits-of-the-deep https://www.facebook.com/WoodentopsOfficial http://woodentopsmusic.com/
