Pat Thomas - I Ain't Buying It

(This review first appeared in issue #85 of Shindig! magazine.)

On first listen the second solo LP from Cool Ghoul bassist Pat Thomas channels a lineage of quirky Californian eccentricity that runs way back to Brian Wilson and SMiLE. For example 'Are You OK' has a goofy playground melody and comes adorned with bells, whistles, car-horn honks and dog barks. Then there's 'New Star-Ell' which celebrates living within walking distance of a liquor store. The thread of cartoon comedy is even there on the vinyl edition's label, which spoofs the Looney Tunes "That's All Folks" logo.

Deeper listening reveals a more serious intent along with serious musicianship. Much of Thomas' lyrics contain messages about personal freedom and call for fairer distribution of wealth, land and power, best evidenced on the album's tour-de-force closer 'Give The Land To The People'. The music draws from vintage soul, soft sunshine-psych and free jazz and gives persuasive power to the album's underlying alternative manifesto.

Jacco Gardner - Somnium

(This review first appeared in issue #84 of Shindig! magazine.)

It's five full years since the release of Gardner's instantly classic debut LP Cabinet Of Curiosities. Since then he's opted to give the people what they don't yet know they want rather than repeat any psych-pop formula. Somnium is inspired by Johannes Kepler's 1608 novel of the same name, and Gardner's recent relocation to Lisbon. By opting to make a vocal-less instrumental album Gardner takes a big risk but the investment of immersive listening reveals the album's singular meditative qualities.

With soothing layers of analogue synths, gently propulsive bass-lines and an emphasis the listener's inner journey, the music has precedents in the ambient explorations of Tangerine Dream and the library music used on TV programmes for schools and colleges in the 1980s. It may not be the echo of '60s psych-pop many of his listeners were hoping for but does signal Gardner's growing confidence in taking the road less travelled.

SMASH Fashion - Rompus Pompous

(This review first appeared in issue #84 of Shindig! magazine.)

LA-based Smash Fashion burst onto the music scene with their debut Big Cat Love in 2014 proving that the retro glam scene wasn't purely reserved for Italian bootboys. Rompus Pompous serves up another batch of guitarist/vocalist Roger Deering's songs. They're bold, brash, melodic and defiantly good-time, with a sonic template based on '70s FM rock and lyrics that are playful, funny and hark back to a time before rock music started taking itself so seriously. Duelling twin-guitars abound and actively embrace the much-maligned guitar technique of squealing pinched harmonics.

For all its knowingly tongue-in-cheek humour, Rompus Pompous does however contain a genuine rock ballad epic in 'Smiles And Daggers', a track that rivals Guns 'n' Roses' 'November Rain' in scale and ambition. It reveals a musically hot band at the top of their game and comes embellished with sumptuous piano playing courtesy of David Bowie's long-serving keyboardist Mike Garson.

Magnus Carlson - A Nordic Soul

(This review first appeared in issue #84 of Shindig! magazine.)

Carlson has been a big star for over two decades in his native Sweden, firstly as a founder member of indie rockers Weeping Willows and latterly via several collaborations and a successful solo career. This is his first full-length solo outing in the UK and focuses on his deep love of northern soul. Recorded in part by long-time Paul Weller associate Andy Lewis at the Modfather's Black Barn Studio, it's stacked with uptempo dance-floor fillers, all taut grooves, punchy horns and melancholic high strings. With any justice it will bring Carlson the wider audience he deserves.

If side one is about being on the floor shaking some talc, side two broadens out into more of a comedown feel, most successfully on the lush orchestral ballad 'Broken Promise Land', which features backing from Carlson's Weeping Willows band-mates. Medway modernists will also be pleased by guest appearance of Fay Hallam on 'Now That It's Over'.

J.P. Bimeni & The Black Belts - Free Me

(This review first appeared in issue #84 of Shindig! magazine.)

JP Bimeni's back-story is like none other. A descendant of the Burundian royal family, he fled Burundi aged 15 during the 1993 civil war after three attempts on his life. Having survived being both shot and poisoned he managed to attain refugee status and moved to the UK, taking a college place in Wales. It was there he started listening to the soul music that would go on to inform his own singing style. A spell in an Otis Redding tribute revue brought him to the attention of Madrid's Tucxone Records who paired him with The Black Belts to record this infectious album.

If the meeting of southern soul with uptempo African funk doesn't grab you then Bimeni's impassioned vocals surely will. Equally stirring on the tearjerkers or the floor-filling modern funk numbers. Free Me is one of the year's must-have soul albums and a reminder of how compelling singing from the heart can be.

Sha La Das - Love In The Wind

(This review first appeared in issue #83 of Shindig! magazine.)

Bill Schalda was a teenage member of '60s Brooklyn vocal group The Montereys who would later pass on his love of close harmony singing to his three sons Will, Paul and Carmine. Together the quartet supplied background vocals to Charles Bradley's Victim of Love LP. Producer Thomas Brenneck was so taken with the results he encouraged the group to make this full-length album which merges doo-wop sensibilities with soul's expansive and emotional range.

Featuring their unique close family harmonies backed by the finest musicians of Daptone's extended musical family (including members of The Budos Band, Menahan Street Band, The Dap-Kings), Love In The Wind is built on pure love of the music, palpable in the ghostly doo-wop ('Those Days Are Over', 'Do What'), and the standout uptempo psych-soul groover 'Carnival'. The mix of era-respecting authenticity, youthful spirit and combined team effort is a winning combination, even by Daptone's high standards.

Dirty Streets - Distractions

(This review first appeared in issue #83 of Shindig! magazine.)

The Memphis trio's fifth LP unleashes a barrage of greasy blues 'n' boogie rock, big on pentatonic riffs, driving drums and floor shaking bottom end, as exemplified on the album's bookending tracks 'Loving Man' and 'Trying To Remember'. Aside from the heavy duty rock are revelatory moments where the band break out of their blues box and venture off on different tacks. 'Dream' showcases their softer, textured pop side, whereas 'Take A Walk' sees the band go all-out into wah-wah enhanced funk-rock.

'Can't Go Back' allows drummer Andrew Denham to take centre stage. Then there's the lyrical voodoo and hip-hop beats of 'Death's Creep' or 'On The Way' where vocalist/guitarist Justin Toland mixes bluesy vocals with British finger-style acoustic picking. Recorded live at the historic Sam Phillips Recording Studio in their hometown, Distractions honours the south's hard rocking musical traditions and adds a high voltage boost. Best played loud.

Kelley Stoltz - Natural Causes

(This review first appeared in issue #82 of Shindig! magazine.)

Stoltz's love of '60s Brit Invasion and '80s post-punk sounds is well known so it's no surprise echoes of both loom large on his latest album. Be it the dreampop of the title track, the lo-fi psychedelic pop of 'My Friend' or the indie-disco of 'Decisions Decisions', he combines spiky guitar lines with whistleable '60s pop melodies, then nicely drenches them with chorus and reverb. In this musical tug-of-love it's the '80s that ultimately wins with Stoltz going full out retro-electro on 'Static Electricity', with call-and-response robotic vocals, synth shimmers and dive-bombing guitar solo.

As the album progresses each tracks reveals a different mood or aspect of Stoltz's personality; gently mocking sarcasm on 'How Psychedelic Of You', a jaunty sing-song round the old Joanna on 'A Rolling Tambourine', and best of all 'Where You Will', a slice of wistful melancholia with Stoltz beautifully channelling his inner Morrissey and Marr.

Prana Crafter - Enter The Stream

(This review first appeared in issue #82 of Shindig! magazine.)

Most musicians are inspired to some extent by their surroundings. Few transmute the experience of landscape into music as artfully as William Sol AKA Prana Crafter. From his home in the woodlands of Washington State's Olympic peninsula he's released several cassette albums of nature-inspired psych-folk that combine the vocal vulnerability of Neil Young, the exploratory virtuosity of Jerry Garcia with an Eno-esque knack for ambient textures.

Enter The Stream is his most engaging album so far, a mix of downbeat Americana and sonic exploration. Against a backdrop of trickling water, the title track sets the mood on a record that champions the eternal beauty of the natural world over the ugliness of contemporary global politics. In Sol's hands even white noise and scales more usually associated with doom-rock have a soothing quality, as evidenced on 'Moon Through Fern Lattice' and 'The Spell' respectively. As rejuvenating and refreshing as a wild swim.

Durand Jones & The Indications - You And Me / Put A Smile On Your Face (7")

(This review first appeared in issue #81 of Shindig! magazine.)

Something is happening and Mr. Jones knows what it is. Our appetite for rare soul remains as insatiable as ever. The mix of grit, groove and passionate emotion distilled by American musicians in the sixties and seventies continues to fascinate. With this in mind Durand and his Indications pay homage to two lesser-celebrated soul acts.

'You And Me' was originally recorded as a demo by Ohio-based Penny & The Quarters in the early seventies. Durand adds an early Motown vibe with a sweet falsetto over a doo wop chord sequence. 'Put A Smile On Your Face' is a melancholic gem originally cut by Detroit's EJ & The Echoes in 1967. Durand's faithful take offers neat drum shuffles and a vocal delivery that gets straight to the emotional heart of the lyrics. The fact that these versions were recorded quickly in a electric piano repair shop only adds to the authentic vintage vibe.