Welsh guitarist Richard Thomas released his Quitting The Biscuits EP earlier this year, he stated that it would be last of his stack of tracks that he had amassed over the years for his one-man Mint Biscuit. Well, he lied. Hot On The Heels Of... is another collection of instrumentals that he found trawling the dusty corners of his hard drive. The tracks were cleaned up with Audacity. Thomas loves to mess around with harmonics on this one (Happy Tune, Total Harmonium). He tries his hand to come up with power pop composition, with the oddly named but highly effective McDonalds And Red Wine. Eagle-eyed readers will have noticed that E By Gum was already release on the We Are Sailing EP, but this version is shorter and sounds a bit clearer.
Thomas' use of a bare bones recording set-up obviously has its limitations, but trying to put down this kind of intimacy in a state-of-the-art studio is nigh impossible. Don a pair of (half-decent) headphones and make believe that he is sitting right in front of you, playing songs about food (Tiramisu Altiplano) and the sounds of nature (Cornfield Whisper).
Hot On The Heels Of... is a self-released album. Buy it from his website. The cover art has a photo of a Fiat 126 BIS, the kind of car his dad used to drive in.
Tracks:- City On Lockdown
- Total Harmonium
- Monster Mash
- E By Gum
- Happy Tune
- McDonalds And Red Wine
- Red Campion Super Champion
- Miller's Finger
- Healing Better
- Cornfield Whisper
- Solway Mariner's Blues
- Deep
- Raindrops
- Tiramisu Altiplano
» mintbiscuitsounds.com
HCTF review of Blues For The Red Cow
