Papernut Cambridge - Mellotron Phase: Volume 2

Retro-to-go! A second volume of library music from Ian Button & co!

It's impossible not to love Papernut Cambridge. Already this year they've released the fantastic album Outstairs Instairs, and now this, a follow-up to 2017's Mellotron Phase: Volume 1. For anyone unfamiliar with those two albums here's the crack – Outstairs Instairs is a song-based album rich in sentiment, intelligence and lyrical ideas and allows the collective's many talented musicians to shine. Mellotron Phase: Volume 1 is a 10” vinyl LP featuring library-music inspired instrumental pieces with sounds sourced from original Mellotron tapes. At times the music is funny, sad, moving, intriguing, cheesy, evocative, wry, uplifting and much more. And now we have a volume 2!

Released by head-Papernut Ian Button's Gare Du Nord label in conjunction with boutique library music company Ravenwood, this album is as authentic as it gets. As stated on the sleeve - “Apart from the drums, bass guitar and some light percussion all the instrument sounds you hear on this record were made originally by a Mellotron or one of its contemporary tape/disc-based playback instruments. The sounds were picked from Gforce's M-Tron Pro tape libraries... Throughout, the original unedited mono patches were used to preserve the tone and functionality of the original instruments.”

Library music remains as highly prized among collectors as ever and continues to inspire today's musicians. It's not difficult to see why. It allows them to step outside of traditional band-based collaborations and draw upon a different set of influences – foreign pop and folk, soundtracks, new age music,TV themes, light entertainment orchestras, military bands. Literally anything goes. The track titles on Mellotron Phase: Volume 2 are evocative in themselves – for example 'Cha-Cha-Charlie', 'Cygnus Probe', 'Boss Club' and 'Sergeant Major Mushrooms'. My own personal favourite being 'A Cowboy In Montmartre'. Each piece is its own mini film score delivered with wit, verve and a whole lot of musical ability. For all the melodic and stylistic variation, the sonic restrictions lend the album a continuity of sound which holds the whole thing together in a most delightful and satisfying way.

Like its predecessor Volume 2 is released on 10” vinyl. There is also a CD version which collates both volumes. Buy with confidence, you will love this record.

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Click here for Gare Du Nord Records.

Click here for Ravenwood Music.

The Hardy Tree - Through Passages Of Time

(This review first appeared in issue #63 of Shindig! magazine.)

Clay Pipe Music LP

As London town continues to morph ever more rapidly into structures of steel and glass, the ghosts and echoes of its past are still there for those prepared to listen. That's the thinking behind this album from Clay Pipe Music's founder Frances Castle. With a palette of Mellotron, vibes, sequenced Moogs and viola courtesy of The Left Outsides' Alison Cotton, The Hardy Tree paint a musical elegy to the Smoke's lost landmarks, both big and small.

Interspersed with recordings of market street hawkers, running water, church bells, creaking doors and the sound of building work, this collection of instrumental pieces is uniquely affecting and owes a lot to music made for music for schools and colleges TV programmes in the 1970s. Imagine Nick Drake trying his hand at strange, spooky electronica. Hauntological library music that will have you falling in love with the city and its history all over again.