It's funny the way things go, isn't it? I mean, while many critics took to it like ducks to H2O, elements of the press thought ONE MORE GRAIN and their debut album 'Pigeon English' had suddenly landed like a flying saucer full of little green men in Whitechapel. There again, in a scene ruled by cool haircuts and seemingly terminally obsessed with recycling angular riffs, the OMG sound (roughly akin to Miles Davis being nutmegged by 'Perverted By Language-era Fall) probably did sound like uncannily like an earthquake. And so it should.
But it's funny because OMG leader Daniel Patrick Quinn's actually been working towards the seismic, rhythmically superior industrial be-bop ver Grain finally unleashed on an unsuspecting public for a number of years now. If you don't believe me, check out his background in his native Lancashire and a couple of creatively fruitful, but commerically barren years in Edinburgh working through a string of osbcure, but great solo albums on his now-defunct Suilven Recordings label and you discover a character who's been shaping up to dole out some seriously original sonic invective on a wider scale for quite some time.
Still, Joe Public's always been slow on the uptake, so let's be thankful that at last awareness of this singular character and his brilliantly cranky musical collaborators is reaching larger numbers of would-be disciples, because for anyone left still discerning enough not to conform easily, One More Grain have a lot going for them. Indeed, if 'Pigeon English' established them as fiercely intelligent contenders with a 'stuff 'em, this is our thing' attitude towards individuality, then follow-up 'Isle Of Grain' is a good bet for taking awkward, weird briliance a good few steps further towards something akin to a crossover.
Not that it's all plain sailing by any means. Dating from sessions still featuring the band's original rhythm section (bassist DuDu Froment and Gal Moore), tracks like 'Under Night Streets' and the closing 'Walking Off The Map' embrace the arcane and avant-garde with some relish and indeed the sprawling amorphous mass of the former is by some way the most curious, out-there thing OMG have atempted as yet. This track also features trumpeter Andrew Blick's brother Robin's clarinet and the end results certainly have more in common with the likes of Eugene Chadbourne than anything within the rock'n'roll sphere. 'Walking Off The Map', too, revels in Quinn's natural improvisatory stance, though it's held together by both DuDu's pulsing throb and OMG's inherent intuition.
Elsewhere, OMG Mk.1 bow out with a pair of absolute killer recordings. On 'Figure Of Eight', Blick's melodic figures perfectly punctuate Quinn's rudimentary guitar chime and the rhythm section are spot on in setting up something that's somehow attractive and nightmarish all at once. Quinn's narrative approach gets more intriguing with every release and here it's hard not to agree with his assertion that "a flock of birds have more idea of where they're going that people do." Then there's the quintessential looming OMG menace of the darkly amusing 'Jon Hassellhoff' with its' clammy, compressed cruising cab narrative from Quinn and DuDu levering up an amazing bassline that Jah Wobble will be kicking himself he missed out on. It's also a track which indicates the Grain are seamlessly slipping a subtle use of programming into their organic approach these days.
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Great though these tracks are, though, the heart of the record is really the quartet of tunes recorded by the band's current line-up, with new bassist Merek Cooper and drummer Laurie Waller. Moore and DuDu were a hard act to follow, but these two gents have fitted in impeccably and they provoke Quinn and Blick to new heights once again on tunes like the frantic, hard-edged demolition job of the opening 'Confession Time'. Here, Waller's drums are a perpetual nervous heartbeat, Blick's trumpet covers all bases from majestic to maniacal and Quinn's sarky refrain ("so have a heart!") cuts right through the top of your head. It's as uncompromising as the hilarious 'Lad With A Balloon' ("They say I'm off me rocker, but I'm tryin' me best to have a nice time!") is playful and the excellent 'A Town Is What You Make It' is intelligent, serrated, fascinating and stupidly catchy seemingly all at once. This latter tune is classic Quinn in design, with the band building joyously on his drone-y backdrop and the wry lyrical content ("I'll be sittin' round havin' a massage and some herbal tea") regally takes the piss out of the regular city dweller's idea of the "high life."
And talking of catchy: whatever you do, don't miss the tremendous 'Having A Ball' which as I type is apparently doing the rounds with Zane Lowe and is ilk and threatening to do for OMG what 'Creep' did for The Fall. Yes, one hesitates to mount fences marked "commercial" in regard to One More Grain, but certainly it's the most bouncy, confident and groove-bound OMG have got thus far and besides, any tune that marries rancorous disco beats to references to Dar-es-Salaam is more than alright by me.
In approaching 'Isle Of Grain', One More Grain suggest we should "disregard the compass...sometimes it's good to be lost" ('Walking Off The Map') and - as always with this lot - that largely proves good advice. Nonetheless, 'Isle Of Grain' is a fiercely independent, self-ruled bailiwick led by a freewheeling cartographer figure who could just be the Dr.Livingstone of alt.rock we've all been waiting for far too long. I suggest you come and meet him at your earliest convenience.
(www.myspace.com/onemoregrain)
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