This is a really nice recording. I like the range of sounds and styles. I love the way it all fits together like one thing and I like the feeling of being taken seriously as a listener. It's an offering from a one man band/writer/producer on a small electronica label and it’s a treat.
The person is Lawrence Gill and Alternative Blueprint is the label. Both seem to come from somewhere between Bridgewater and Taunton in Somerset.
The sound is something like Frank Zappa singing with and orchestrating Animal Collective, with Battles-style electronic additions to beautifully played and recorded junkshop acoustic instruments. I say "junk shop" as if that was a problem, but all my own favourite instruments have come from junk shops for less money than was decent. They have character and soul. Gill has a genuine reverence for the unique voice of particular instruments. He plays and records them in ways that bring out the best in their individual sounds.
Opening track "Ejector Seat Blues" makes instant contact with a sumptuous cello line. There's an acid jazz feel to the percussion and vocal style. There's a Tom Waits weirdness in isolated piano notes, there are unexpected electronic accents and there is a languid progress through the surreal mystery of the song itself. I'm guessing it was painstakingly pieced together over hours and hours of recording and mixing. But it sounds beautifully free and improvised. It really is a great tune. Once you've heard this track I don’t think you'll spend much time wondering whether you're going to like this collection or not.
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On the second track "Red Eyes At Sunrise" (I guess he does a lot of all night sessions making this stuff) there's an upright bass solo with light-touch jazz drumming. It’s a nicely atmospheric piece with nearly-conventional beats and a keyboard tune dropping in and out. Variation and textural fascination are never far away though.
"King Laugh" starts with a bass/cello part and then sets off with a multitracked vocal that has one very deep line and a couple in a more normal range. Alien noises decorate proceedings and its all very beguiling.
"Figures Bent From Wire" has an autoharp and whooping noises (among other things). "I Patched Myself In" takes an acoustic guitar into territory it might never have expected, with lyrics to rival Beefheart's surreal lines. And final song "The Earthlings Have Landed" goes faster and furiouser towards the Bug-Eyed Beans from Venus. But where Beefheart was imperious and unforgiving, AUTOMATED ACOUSTICS is more about the love and peace. Among the squeaks and gibbering, that autoharp rings out like a call to cream teas and human warmth.
I think the CD can be got from the label website, and I do recommend further investigation.
www.alternativeblueprint.com
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