Tompot Blenny
Found Under Blankets CD
Shinkansen. Shinkansen 28CD.
by Keith McLachlan.
November 14, 2000.
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I don't think anyone liked Tompot Blenny the first
time around did they? Of course, I did. It wasn't a
moment of singular insight though cause I suspect not
many people will like the new mini-album either. I
can't say I blame them this time as I, for once the
consensus builder, am not nearly as fully enamoured
with it as the first couple of singles.
Who told them they needed a drummer anyhow? Probably the guys from Monograph, man do those guys suck, but they don't seem to be aware of that fact, but anyways the strength here is the voice- it is heart wrenching, but he has shaded its impact with vocal effects and an intrusive beat and guitar scraping. Maybe I just need to call them Tompot Drummer Blenny and get used to the fact that this is a lot like a Red House Painters record and that I used to really love the Red House Painters, long before that long-hair started hanging out with Cameron Crowe I suspect. And at least the songs here don't go on for 8 or 9 minutes. Kindly, most of the songs are gone before they crease the folds of your cortex which makes it sound like I am not much for the album but I am. Really.
Tompot Blenny
Green Is The Best Colour CD-EP
Shinkansen. shinkansen 5cd.
by Keith McLachlan.
December 10, 1996.
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A newie from the new Shinkansen label, this cd compiles both of the
Tompot Blenny seven inchers. In fact I am listening to the cd now so
that I might give a better review, hmmmm...I like it a lot, sounds a
bit like the Orchids or maybe similar to the early Harvest Minister
singles and I think I hear some East River Pipe and maybe the
Sugargliders in here too, I don't know which is most accurate but it
is very beautiful and sad and pretty much on target for what we have
come to expect from Sarah/Shinkansen.
Topper
Something To Tell Her CD
Ankst. cd080.
by Keith McLachlan.
December 28, 1997.
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Topper is the band for those who
think the Super Furry Animals are
simply too far gone and those who think that Gorky's Zygotic Mynci have
indulged in one too many lysergic missions back to the 60s. For Topper
are nearly the perfect combination of those two bands, perhaps closer in
appeal to GZM as SFA inhabit their own particularly unique consciousness.
This mini-lp is a quick run through of a good number of the things that have led to the sudden interest in Welsh music. It has tunes, it is anything but orthodox, the lyrics are bi-lingual and the attitude is carefree and unaware of current trends. Worth an investigation and perhaps the ideal jumping off point for your further adventures into the mysterious world of the music of the mountain people.
Trampoline
I Want One Of Everybody CD
Spin Art. spart 49.
by Keith McLachlan.
December 26, 1996.
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Power pop seems such an odious term, but it seems odiously appropriate
for the new Trampoline record, which is so far from odious as to be
almost floral. This disc has the same sort of spirit as the first
Charlatans UK record, the songs aren't particularly deep or emotional
but they ring and chime with strong melodies and pleasant enough
vocals especially on the title track and on the lovely "Coronado" to
make the lightweight-ness of it all seem inevitably ignorable. Kinda
cool, pretty nice.
Trash Can Sinatras
On A B-Road CD
BoBame. 002.
by Keith Mclachlan.
May 5, 2001.
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This record was originally released some time ago, I
believe, but has only just recently been re-compiled
with newer additions and re-released (released again is
a relative term as the record is available only
through a fan's website). Strictly unofficial, though
with the band's official blessing I think it collects
all of the band's b-sides, along with some sometimes
interesting cover versions recorded both live and what
seems, if going by the sound quality alone, like on
some fan's boombox while sitting home listening to
some radio session in England or Scotland or New
Jersey, surely all places light years away from
Denver, Colorado. The Trash Can Sinatras are a bit of
an enigma, they posess in their midst one of the most
purely passionate voices in indie-pop music and yet
through 13 or so years of existence (one that started
with well-deserved comparisons to the Smiths) have
managed to produce a mere three full-length
records (allegedly they just scrapped all of their
fourth) and these records while extremely good and
engaging and beautiful and truly and increasingly
well-crafted never, in fact, captured the greatness
that everyone, or perhaps it is only me, believes is
nestled inside of their hearts. Frank Reader became
Francis on the second record, this may have been the
root of the problem because he then turned away from
the spleen-busting wailing of the first record to a
smoother, more confident brand of crooning, born to
match his new sophisticated nomenclature surely, on
'I've Seen Everything' and 'A Happy Pocket'. Granted,
he is still one of my favourite singers and is likely
the only reason I love the band enough to shell out
money for a two cd collection of b-sides but here, now,
hearing more songs from an earlier, giddier and to my
ears more passionate era I wish he had somehow managed
a way to increase his angsty delivery and possibly
have turned the tide of public opinion more decidely
in their favour. Anyhow, this is a surprisingly
mistake-free collection, some of the recording
qualities of the live versions and session versions
are incredibly lacking and their choice of cover songs
is fairly obvious (Beatles, XTC, ABBA and their version
of 'I Know It's Over' from the Smiths tribute record
which I have always longed to hear) but then the
b-sides are incredibly strong and would have held up
to standards set on their excellent full-length
records. Again it is the voice, often times Francis
turns rather middling fare (check the gorgeous crooning
on 'Dolphins') to something approaching special, and
that must be an innate characteristic within his soul
that sadly he chooses, either by some sort of external
constraint or some inner inhibitions, to share less
and less often. Tragic. I could blame his California
girl-pal but that would be too obvious.
Trashmonk
Mona Lisa Overdrive CD
Creation. crecd212.
by Keith McLachlan.
May 16, 1999.
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I glanced at the liner notes of this cd half expecting Michael Mann's
name in the producer credits and Nick Monk dressed in a white blazer
and pastel tee. This is a record made by a guy who probably has a
30,000 dollar a week coke habit just so his girlfriend will think he
is hard. Sad then to think that my fifteen dollar fee is either up
Nick's nose or worse, paying for the gourmet food for his girlfriend's
dog. Trashmonk is the new project of the former head man of Dream
Academy and you know you are absolutely right if you are thinking that
that is not much of a pedigree so I suppose I am rightfully put in my
place for thinking he somehow had the magic inside of him to make a
record that anyone other than Alan Mcgee could appreciate. It begins
rather fantastically with 'A Girl I used to Know' with it's
Spiritualizedy ambience and smartness and general melancholy which
most will discover truly sublime moments within, but, very sadly, the
record is more than one song long. Over the next 10 tracks what you
mostly get is an homage to Jim Kerr and Simple Minds, some way out of
place English girls trying to sound all soulful even though there is
not anything closely resembling a soul song in this neighbourhood and
some silly meditative and mantraic lyrics that were hip for about 13
seconds in 1967. Hopefully Nick Crockett, unlike his partner Philip
Michael Thomas, will keep his pants on and Mona Lisa Overdrive will
produce no progeny of its own in the near future. Avoid at all costs.