The Black Watch

The Green Ray

Ger Eaton

Astralasia

Home

THE BLACK WATCH - VARIED SUPERSTITIONS

CD/LP from Blue Matter

John Andrew Frederick, who hails from Santa Barbara USA, is one of the nicest guys in rock, and it’s through no fault of his own that he’s been through more record labels in his time to date than most established bands have released albums. With all due respect to the others however, Nick Saloman and Gary Unwin’s Blue Matter label feels to me like it could well prove to be the perfect match at long last for this, the Black Watch’s 26th LP, with its acutely literate lyrics (something the Bevis Frond founder himself is a past master at), catchy melodies and trippy psychedelic flourishes (ditto) and deft dabs of colour from a slightly more indie/anthemic/shoegaze palette than one might at first glance expect from an outfit presumably named after the proudly Scottish military band that conquered the US charts in 1976 with their single ‘Scotch on the Rocks’.

But to return to the album in question, which is unquestionably a gem. The seven-minute plus opening number ‘It Is What It Isn’t’ features some gloriously shimmering, pellucid guitar work; tracks like ‘Jolly Melancholy’ and ‘In This Town’ show glimpses of a collision between The Cure and the Teardrop Explodes, and the title track anchors the whole with the band’s trademark driving bass lines and rock steady beat. And yet, despite mention of any number of other acts whether influential or otherwise, the Black Watch’s music remains as original and timeless as a bee trapped in amber, and very nearly as beautifully melancholic as well.

(Phil McMullen)

Home

Bear with us as we unravel the somewhat confusing origins/discography of The Green Ray. Originally formed as The Archers by ex-Help Yourself members Ken Whaley and Richard Treece alongside Simons Whaley (Ken's brother) and Haspeck, the quartet released their debut EP "The Green Ray" on Shagrat in 1993. Simon Burgin replaced Haspeck and the new lineup adopted the name of their debut EP, releasing another EP on Shagrat in 1995 with the brilliantly punny title "Sighs Whales And Trees" (think about it!) Confusing matters further, a third EP/mini-album (on Father Yod) followed in 1996, also titled "The Green Ray" which included a track from "Sighs Whales And Trees" but no overlap with The Archers "Green Ray" EP. It would be nearly a decade before their next release appeared in 2004, a compilation of tracks from The Archers EP, new recordings, and two tracks from their Terrastock 3 performance at University Of London ULU in 1999. An album of The Archers' lineup (billed as The Green Ray!) appeared in 2006, followed by a live album featuring The Bevis Frond guitarist (and former Ptolemaic Terrascope publisher) Nick Saloman in 2008.

While three-quarters of that original Green Ray lineup have passed on since their Terrastock performance, Simon Whaley has revived the project, which now features ex-members of Mouthful Of Grass Martin James Gee, Mark Cullum, and Dave Mackenzie. The Green Ray's seventh album (including several live recordings) continues their well-honed legacy of fragile, dreamy psychedelia, bolstered by the addition of flautist and saxophonist Mitch Brooks who adds some deft folk/jazz/prog elements to the proceedings. Gee's vocals certainly have a hint of Mr. Saloman's nasal delivery and a veil of Floyd's heavy-lidded nodders permeates tracks like opener 'The Veil Of Certainlys.' Sax and guitar intertwine perfectly to create a comfortable, laidback experience.

There's a little more oomph and a funky backbone to 'You'll Have To Get Lost (To Find Yourself)' and Gee and Whaley pull out all the stops on their flaming solos. The band flex their considerable improvisational skills on Side 2, stretching the three tracks beyond 20 minutes with intricate guitar interplay and sexy saxy moments throughout 'Ornamentals,' a floating, Dead-like groove to the appropriately-titled 'Float, Slight Return' which you may recognise from their debut and Terrastock performance, and a title track that ties everything up in a tight little package with agreeable elements of flute and a promising declaration that "It's gonna be allright."

(Jeff Penczak)

Home

GER EATON - SEASON CHANGES
(LP/CD from Dimple Discs)

Irish singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, hair stylist and bona fide ‘Retro Aficionado’ Ger Eaton (“it’s pronounced Jair, short for Gerard,” he assures me) has long been a mainstay of the contemporary mainstream Irish music scene. ‘Season Changes’ is his debut solo album, released by the English label Dimple Discs - also home of Nick Haeffner, who was a regular feature of the Ptolemaic Terrascope review columns back in the day, for what it’s worth.

The album is beautifully produced and features string arrangements by my own favourite arranger whose name isn’t Robert Kirby, Andrew Keeling. Six of the songs have been released as singles, which indicates perhaps the market this is aimed at: aficionados of the late 60s and early 70s melodic rock big-hitters such as Colin Blunstone and the Walker Brothers, though I am also reminded in places of glam-rockers The Cleaners from Venus (led by poet Martin Newell) and introspective singer-songwriters such as Clifford T. Ward.

The lyrics and songwriting reveal this to be a “an old fashioned break-up record. Mirroring the seasons, the songs were written and recorded towards the end of my marriage, from the glowing bloom of its springtime right through to its wintry conclusion.” The stand-out track is undoubtedly the title song itself, ‘Season Changes’, which closes the album; however the Honeybus-esque ‘Heaven Knows’ is a gem, and the cleverly arranged ‘To The Ones’ is a real heartstring-tugger. I also really enjoyed a couple of the instrumental interludes particularly ‘Estival Air’ and the piano-driven ‘Wintertide’. The album cover’s nod of acknowledgment to Fleetwood Mac’s ‘Kiln House’ is also nicely done.

(Phil McMullen)

Home

ASTRALASIA - AN INTRODUCTION TO
(4xCD set from Fruits De Mer)

[Apologies for the long read, but I felt it was worth it - JP]

Marc "Swordfish" Hunt's career stretches across nearly 45 years so this extravagant, hand-picked, 40-track, four-disc set only scratches the surface. Completists with froth over the dozen unreleased and rare, hard-to-find tracks, but new fans who discovered him and his projects via his numerous Fruits De Mer releases will also find much to enjoy across the 4-plus hours of material, including that very first release recorded in 1982 on a 4-track Teac A3340 reel-to-reel that was actually a mistake (trivia fans). The female vocalists couldn't actually sing so the track, 'Girls Talk' released on a compilation cassette and credited to Commodore 64 Choir is essentially them having a chat over a musical loop in the background! Various magic mushrooms of the hallucinogenic mind tripper variety followed (Magic Mushroom Band, Mushroom Project, Mushroom, the latter not connected to former Terrascope editor Pat Thomas' West Coast project) before Astralasia began life in 1990.

Swordfish and his band of merry mirth makers (which once included Keith Relf's son Jason as an early member) have successfully traversed the world of ambient dub, acid house, trance, dance, psychedelic pop with occasional toe-dips into krautrock, soundtracks, and remixes, all of which are on offer. 'Cresta Run' begins the adventure in a dreamy mood before the title track from its parent album Wind On Water floats by over an hypnotic bass pulse. 'Astral Voyager' will have your heart racing like a marathon runner and the first of many covers (a Fruits De Mer specialty) Brainticket's 'Cotton Wood Hill'/'Places Of Light' features some fancy frantic fretwork, a HI-NRG disco stomp, and a gnarly organ solo. Just beware the siren if you're driving home after a night out at a techno underground party! 'Tangerine Skies' and the 'Alooland Ambient Mix' from the Oceania double album end the first disk in a laidback, chill out groove with hints of Eno and The KLF hovering in the air.

Several selections from The Darkest Voyage 6-CD compilation featuring Astralasia and friends/side projects highlight the second disc, which includes the dancefloor magnets 'Really Stomp,' 'Dream Sequence,' and Finnish space rockers Superfjord's "whirly remix" of Astralasia's take on John Coltrane's 'A Love Supreme' ('Deep Magick') which might have 'Trane rolling in his grave, but will have you boogieing on the dancefloor. The bonus 7" tucked inside the special edition of Oceania features  'Shala Dub Dubber' which will have you checking the label to make sure some long lost PiL throbbing bass dub outtake hasn't found its way inside. Jah Wobble fans will smile and nod approvingly.

Both sides of their pseudonymous alter egos The Fishheads successfully tackle Chet Power's old chestnut 'Let's Get Together' and it rightly holds  its head up, er, high among the numerous versions recorded over the last 60 years. I should add they got our old Terrascope friend Anton Barbeau to provide a guest vocal! Barbeau's dulcet tones also feature on the flip side, a faithful 'Pleasant Valley Sunday' which is a rare pop/psych treat. I think I can say without fear of contradiction that Astralasia/Fishheads is the only band to cover a Mighty Baby track and their 'Egyptian Tomb' adds a female choir and sympathetic flute solo to good effect. An appropriately spacey Floyd cover 'Remember A Day' also features from The Fishheads Lobster Basque Replica album, another sign of the wonderful, if occasional groan-worthy album titles the band (and Fruits De Mer head honcho Keith Jones) have unleashed over the years.

Label mates The Chemistry Set remix 'Neptune Eruptus' and it's bong-os away with lots of things that go "swooosh" to keep your head throbbing and body swerving at about 180 BPMs (that's "blood pressure medicines" for the in-Experienced!) Astralasia also had the pleasure of remixing Hawkwind's 'Spirit Of The Age' for the rather confusing "Solstice Remixes" album. A previously unreleased alternate version of their 'Flesh To Phantasy' remix (a remix of a remix?) highlights their ambient trance period.

Most of disc 3 features previously unreleased material, starting with a 10-minute psychedelic jazz jam from The Mushroom Project II side project (aka Mushroom). 'Dr. Terror' feels like we walked in on the band mid-performance, but we caught the groove quite quickly and let our freak flag fly. Imagine a krautrock Crimson and you're nearly there, although the '(Outs Demons)' subtitle might invoke hints of the Edgar Broughton Band. Simon House jumps onboard to pen 'Cluster Of Waves at The Devilles [sic] Bridge', featuring his violin virtuosity.

The Magic Mushroom Band signposted the name (and stylistic) change to the eponymous 'Astralasia' 35 years ago on their Spaced Out release. Ambient dub, Goa trance, and house music morphed into the amoebic throb of hallucinatory happiness that permeates this 4-disc set. DJ duo Salt Tank (David Gates - no, not that one and Malcolm Stanners) deliver an electronic / progressive / trancy heart-stopping collaboration with Néve (aka Angela John)'Butterfly' (featured here in its previously unreleased demo version). It's twice as long as the released version on an obscure New Zealand compilation and had me searching for more. Apparently they're quite the prolific chaps so I've got my work cut out for me.

The remainder of disc three highlights previously unreleased tracks from an Astralasia EP that might excite fans of The Shamen, The ORB, The KLF, and their ilk and/or induce you to book a flight to Ibiza asap. 'Keep On Loving You' got my blood boiling, 'Freedom' is one of my favourite tracks on the whole set - an appropriately soaring symphonic triumph with a booty-boppin' backbeat that reminded me of M83's Versailles theme, 'Outro' with the BPMs pumped up several notches to be honest, and 'Mystic' has a nice New Order dance groove. A rare example of Astralasia onstage can be experienced via their cover of Salt Tank's 'Sargasso Sea' recorded at a 2014 benefit concert for the Penrose Almhouses (Litchdon Street in Barnstable). The disc ends with the aforementioned infamous 'Girls Talk.'

Moving on to the fourth disc, completists will drool over nearly half an hour of outtakes from the Something Somewhere album (a Rundgren reference?), all featuring the entrancing vocals of frequent collaborator Melanie Taylor, and space out to lengthy paint-peeling wah-wah solos (the title track from A Coloured In Dream [sic]). 'Johnny Remember Me' comes off like Motörhead attacking 'Ghost Riders In The Sky,' and we end our four-hour trip through Astralasia with half of Marc's 22-minute remix of The Chemistry Set's devolution of Hendrix's 'Love Or Confusion,' 'Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Laboratory.' Only Swordfish could figure out how to transform Hendrix into Pink Floyd. Whew!

(Jeff Penczak)