Telekinesis - Effluxion

(This review first appeared in issue #88 of Shindig! magazine.)


An album title to increase your knowledge, (Latin for flow, in case you were wondering), Effluxion is the fifth full-length offering from Seattle-based musician Michael Benjamin Lerner, fresh from a stint as touring keyboard player with Teenage Fanclub. The album was self-produced over two years in the basement of his home, with Lerner taking on all instrumental duties. He's songwriter who knows how to knock out a decent hook-laden tune or ten. Be it the quiet/loud dynamics of 'Set A Course', the piano-led pop of 'How Do I Get Rid Of Sunlight?', or the playfully dancing bassline on 'Cut The Quick' the attention is focused on songcraft with properly pleasing choruses and twist-laden mid-eights throughout.

Containing only ten taut tracks Effluxion may be a short listen, but after spending 32 minutes in its company the world will seem a brighter, more hopeful place. As Teenage Fanclub would say – ain't that enough?

Is This Music? - Teenage Fanclub Uncovered - A Spotify Playlist

With a new album from Teenage Fanclub on the horizon I've been immersing myself in the surprising amount of records of theirs that I own. LPs, CD & 7" singles along with appearances on compilation LPs and magazine freebies. With this in mind I present you with a Spotify playlist of songs they've covered. Some are on LPs, some on B-sides, some on tribute albums, but all given the Fanclub makeover and all an insight into their likes and influences. There were also a couple of Neil Young tracks ('Burned' and 'Don't Cry No Tears'), but they aren't on Spotify so I couldn't tag them on. Anyways, I'll stop prattling. Long live the Fanclub!

Alfa 9 - Gone To Ground

Warm sentiments for a cold climate. Harmony drenched, folk-rock jangle from Newcastle-Under-Lyme's finest.

The enduring power of mid '60s folk-rock, most notably made by The Byrds, continues to resonate down the years. That irresistible blend of melody, harmony and treble-turned-up guitar jangle has, at least since the early '80s inspired many a band, becoming a starting point, a sonic template for these bands to take and twist and make their own.

Seven years on from their debut long player Then We Begin, (yes seven years! Beat that Stone Roses!), Alfa 9 are releasing a follow up on Blow Up Records. Gone To Ground takes its main inspiration from The Byrds et al, adds a classicist approach to song writing, (hooky choruses, quality middle eights and all that) and injects it all with a decidedly British sideways glance at life.

Take for instance Old Man Blues, a blues-harp driven driven, humourous account of ageing and looking back at life. It's difficult to imagine a self-obsessed Californian band coming up with such a track but if you're from the Potteries such things no doubt come easier.

Into The Light, along with Green Grass Grows sees the band at their most Byrds-like, the first being imbued with a chirpy, life-is-good feel. Conversely the latter has a melancholic, how-will-I-be-remembered sentiment. Both are mighty fine.

Elsewhere there's some indie-fied country rock (Birling Gap, Nothing Feels, Ferry Song), uptempo psychodrama (El Morocco), and swirly psych-pop like Noel used to have a stab at (The Castle). The album has a similar feel to Teenage Fanclub's Songs From Northern Britain, not just in its sound, but also that it's full of warm sentiments for a cold climate. Let's hope the band don't leave it another seven years till the next album. In the meantime if we get a summer this year this would be a fitting soundtrack.

Click here for Alfa 9's website.

Click here for the Blow Up Records website.