English avant-garde musician Colin Robinson is into investigating generative patterns on the new album Auntie, why does your house smell funny? by hisJumble Hole Clough project. That might seem as a restricting method to come up with something worthwhile and interesting, but being some sort of musical Houdini enables him to steer the process to uncharted waters. Percussion is key on this release, grounding the swirling textures and keeping it tight as he veers into his signature literate lyrical universe wherein anything goes.
Robinson once again proofs that you can write a tune about pretty much anything, be it Leon Trotsky, taking a stroll at the crack at down (6 am, Marston Moor), a bit of claustrophobia (Another dream about being trapped in a crowded, enclosed space), show respect for an early synthesizer (The Wonderous and Most Efficacious Electronium of Happy Valley) or a biblical character's wardrobe (Why did Noah have so many fur coats?).
With his mates Jim Ramsden and Nigel Lawson pitching in to help him out with the growling vocals, Robinson has created a bunch of songs that will strike a chord with fans of Captain Beefheart and Tom Waits. It is a damn fine example of eclectic eccentrism - baffling at times, but also a showcase of wondrous experimentation within self-imposed restraints.
Auntie, why does your house smell funny? is a self-released album. Buy it (pay-what-you-want) from his website.
Tracks:- A Christmas Card from Karlheinz
- Jackfield and Bedlam
- Friday 13th Part 12
- Trotsky bought the ice pick himself
- Did you see The Face of God?
- In dark rooms. Forever.
- Salt-caked smoke-stack
- How many fish in the sea?
- 6 am, Marston Moor
- Tom Lee and the gibbet in Grass Wood
- The Wonderous and Most Efficacious Electronium of Happy Valley
- Swimming underwater
- Dreaming in Slow Motion
- Another dream about being trapped in a crowded, enclosed space
- May Day in the Ossuary (part 1)
- Why did Noah have so many fur coats?
- Fig Rollarena
- May Day in the Ossuary (part 2)
- A brisk walk around the museum
- The milk float was behind our cabins
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HCTF review of The Sunken Chapel (and other dreams)