‘the crooked mile’ is the first full length album from Dorset born singer songwriter Lawry Joseph Tilbury aka birdengine. The majority of tracks on the album basically feature Lawry taking a multi-instrumentalist approach, with occasional contributions from friends Tom Marsh and Danny Green.
The album follows on from the mini-album ‘I Fed Thee Rabbit Water’, and contains ten tracks, all with their unique brand of weirdness – after all, this is the man whose last CD contained the couplet: -“I spent the summer cutting Heads off Dogs/I spent the winter trying to sew them back on.”
So what do we get served up this time? The opening track ‘phantom limb’ (wonderful title) comes across with a heavy psych rock vibe, full moody keyboards, drums and bass, but with an almost flamenco style guitar over the top. The lyrics are fast and somewhat indecipherable, sung in part in a falsetto, they come out in a disturbing rush: - “Look here, look back, watch out, watch out": all of which successfully conveys an air of menace.
‘I, dancing bear’ which follows starts off with the scratchy sound of a turntable needle going round on scratched vinyl, blending with bird song and guitar, this has some aspects of some nightmare film score. The lyrics again are showing a sense of disconnection: - “There are some, some things, that I just do not care to know/ In my suitcase – very deep.”
‘no arms and no friends’ (again a great title) is certainly single material. A wail of feedback and an urgent guitar strum that would not be out of place on an early Throbbing Gristle number, and also featuring doomy, Stranglers-style keyboards, this is one that hooks the listener, along with some clear vocals: - “I got no arms, I got no friends. I got no time to get out this town/ I wanna go, want to wander just where the days do go/ And you won’t lay me down. And you will not lay me down.”
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Other stand out tracks on the album are ‘music at court’ which starts off really lo-fi with distorted keys, before settling into a piano/accordion melody. The lyrical content is vaguely disturbing. Is the character in the song hinting at a murder?
“I will go on my own today. Over the hills and I shall take a box. A box to hide/ All alone in the countryside. You lie, you lie.”
‘the experiments of dr sarconi’ is far more upbeat and has a phraseology that comes across as like the demented ghost of Alex Harvey singing over the top of a Doors melody. This seems extremely odd, out worldly even, but somehow it works, although when Lawry sings “I will spend my time shouting at the sky” you wonder what thought processes are going on there!
Finally, the album closes with ‘make happy’, featuring a chiming clock, and classical guitar. The arrangement here is sparse, spectral and beautiful. “We can tango, we can sleep. Now you taught me, now you taught me/ How to sleep, and dream" Lawry sings longingly.
Overall, I liked this album a lot. The only drawback is that I think this is very much an acquired taste, something to appeal to people who love primarily haunting, gothic-tinged weird folk pop. There are worse things to get hung up on, all things considered.
birdengine online
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