The Lords Of Thyme - Pellets

(This review first appeared in issue #72 of Shindig! magazine.)

Sunstone LP

Their version of 'Hares On The Mountain' with Bonnie Dobson was one of the standout tracks on the Shirley Collins tribute LP Shirley Inspired, so a fair amount of anticipation awaits their full-length debut. Though released on CD last year, it now gets a much warranted vinyl outing that doesn't disappoint, opening with great interpretations of two traditional folk songs - the murder ballad 'Bruton Town', and supernatural love song 'George Collins'.

Though touted purely as a folk rock band, there's more to them than that, as evidenced by the six remaining original songs– 'Freight Train To Rainham' is a Booker T style groovy soul instrumental and the sumptuous pedal steel playing hints there may be a country rock band lurking somewhere within.

Fans of the folk-rock's high watermark (Fairport, Pentangle, Sanny Denny et al) will find themselves a favourite new record and a band with four great vocalists and superb musicianship.

Aussie acid-folkers Trappist Afterland announce UK and European dates

Trappist Afterland head over to the northern hemisphere soon for a string of gigs, including support slots with Wolf People and Trembling Bells. Well worth getting along to!

Trappist Afterland - Afterlander

(This review first appeared in issue 51 of Shindig! magazine)

Fans of The Incredible String Band, Heron and Comus take note. Australian acid-folkers Trappist Afterland have quietly released an album each year since their 2011 debut The Round Dance Of The Cross. They've honed their craft and vision on their fifth and latest Afterlander which has a sound drenched more in olde England myth and mist than Melbourne surf and sun. With its Old Testament prophesying and limited Christ-blood red vinyl release, the vibe is as eerie and sinister as a deleted scene from Witchfinder General.

Though the freak-folk flag is raised high the mood is resolutely downbeat, thanks to chain-like percussion, hypnotic use of drone and repeated chants and mantras. Despite an instrumental smorgasbord that includes oud, tanpura, tabla, bowed psaltery, hammered dulcimer, harmonium, cello and more it's let down slightly by a sameness in mood and tempo. Though if apocalyptic wyrd folk is your bag dive right in!

Click here for Sunstone Records

Moth Effect - Crocodilians

'90s electronica meets indie jazz guitar, together they watch a perfect sunset. Electronic head music for the wee small hours.

Moth Effect is the recording alias of one man from Sussex That man's real name is Andy Le Gresley. Crocodilians is his first full length release, and is now available on vinyl thanks to the good ears at Sunstone Records. An intriguing wordless affair, it's electronica characterised by drones, repetition, and gradual mutation over gentle mid-tempo beats.

This is psychedelic music that doesn't require a bowl-haircut or a paisley shirt. It's music that takes elements from Kraftwerk, Hawkwind, Durutti Column, Sabres Of Paradise along with countless others, and weaves these disparate threads and strands into a unique tapestry. One that's at times beguiling, yet always interesting and worthy of attention. And one whose rewards grow with each listen.

There's a distinctly European feel, almost Balearic. Beatific too. To call it mood music would be a diservice though it does have a similar effect as watching a a good sunrise or sunset. Not so much comedown music, as happy-where-I-am music. With bass guitar motifs to the fore, guitars and art-rock keyboards are given free reign, avoiding blues scales and cliches, yet searching for sonic invention. This meeting of '90s electronica and exploratory indie-jazz guitar is surprisingly fruitful.

Humour plays a part too. Fingerbobs may reference the early '70s kids TV programme but unlike the folksy, homespun music of that show it takes it's cues from the kosmiche musik that made its mark during that era. Throughout the album you're reminded of “music for schools and colleges” - a soundtrack familiar to '80s schoolchildren everywhere. In this sense Crocodilians has similarities with Lemon Jelly's Lost Horizons album, though it's far less twee and jokey.

The overall feel of Crocodilians is hypnotic, refreshing and curiously optimistic, at odds with current tastes and fashions but all the better for it. It's quite unlike anything else around at the moment. Close your eyes, turn off and float downstream. Or failing that simply head towards the light.

Click here for Moth Effect on Twitter.

Click here for the Sunstone Records website.

Balduin - All In A Dream

A little something to blow your mind. Switzerland's one-man answer to The Dukes Of Stratosphear.

Switzerland's multi-instrumentalist Balduin has been making and honing his brand of psychedelic pop music since 2001. On the strength of this debut LP release for Sunstone Records perhaps now is the time he becomes more widely known. All In A Dream is released at a time when '60s psych influenced music is enjoying something of a renaissance. With the likes of Temples and Jacco Gardner gaining popularity, and psych festivals popping up everywhere from Tokyo to Liverpool, Austin to Berlin, it seems that now is a great time for music that explores inner head-space. And if it has a catchy poppy side too, well even better. All In A Dream has this in spades. And then some.

Which Dreamed It, Balduin's sitar-based opus is up there with any '60s pop royalty's foray into eastern music. George Harrison and Brian Jones included. Any notion of pastiche is eroded by the track's sheer playfulness. With lilting time signatures, shifting quarter notes, modal scales and melody, it's a true joy and highlight of the album. Though there are many more delights to be enjoyed.

With an ever shifting musical palette that contains echoes of Syd Barrett, Brian Wilson and a thousand great but long-lost psych bands, Balduin covers much musical ground. Father is a Lennon-esque piano ballad that Beatle John himself would have been proud of. Autumn is an amicable meeting between Merseybeat and folk-pop complete with baroque harpsichord.

It would be a fair to assume that Balduin's record collection and favoured listening is mid to late '60s British psych, in particular Donovan's purple patch of Mickie Most produced albums. That said this album will resonate nicely with fans of each subsequent psychedelic era, from XTC, through the Coral and on towards today's neo-psych torch bearers such as Maston and Jacco Gardner.

UK dates are planned for later in the year and it will be interesting to see how this man-of-many instruments translates these recordings into a live setting. But in the meantime this LP offers more than enough delights.

Click here for Balduin's website.

Click here for the Sunstone Records.