the story so-far

in early 2000s

hedonistic drug addled twin spitting singer never meets

up with quiet reserved musician a few good years his junior

instead they create first album virtually by post long distance

!st album is a very promising electro-ambient affair

with some slightly rocky moments and some spiritualistic stirrings

second album is more poppy tho

although it contained some good songs in of themselves

it was a slight misstep perhaps

sometimes it feels too smart for its own damn good

but still a devilishly fine record and make no mistake…

then came the 3rd record

and here we kinda hit some whole new level

suddenly we are looking at a big picture here

god and love and life and death and all that

the music has totally grown

there is a seriousness and gravitas like um.. pink floyd or something i guess

we didnt see that coming at the beginning did we..?

but that third album is pretty damn good

and even the british press give it 4 star good reviews

yeah its a brilliant record alright

and i cannot bring myself to write that this new album is better than that one

but i can affirm that it is as at least as good

and that it contains a few bona fide classic songs that will tug on your brain strings

and make your heart think again

martin has come into his own even more as an instrumentalist

some of his playing definitely conjures up earlier church songs you never heard before

both on guitar on bass there are churchy moments absolutely

he has enlisted a primary school choir who chime in unexpectedly

his own daughter hollie makes an impressive vocal debut on a few numbers

mirroring miranda kilbeys vocal debut on the first album

she also appears in a video

looking like a miniature baby kim gordon

snarling out the words

and tossing a blonde fringe around menacingly

3 0r 4 or maybe 5 of these songs are very special songs

it makes me wonder how we wrote em

an anonymous gun-for-hire guitarist

has on a track called this merciful blur 

conjured an alterna dave gilmour

who plays his lovely fluid solo and flurries

ands then leaves quietly not to be heard of again

females join in and duet and underscore my voice

my voice is sometimes vocoded

hopefully having a slightly retro sci-fi feel that our martin loves so much

auto-tune is used to be obvious and in this kind of music it sounds bizarre

there are loads of different drums

real drums machine drums whatever or all mixed up

the album owes debts to floyd bowie krautrock and stuff like that

yet we have now incorporated and transcended all influences

the album sounds mostly like us

it sounds like the last album

the words are obviously my usual patina of preoccupations

a lot of it sophisticated sophistry and subtle subtexts

it again deals with all that stuff i do

you know what i mean

god sex drug mind paradox memory longing etc etc

its all there in every single line

c’mon kennedy and i are good at this sort of stuff by now

and the album again has the deluxe lush mix of s.polinski

which means it sounds pretty much like a million dollars

more and more i am seeing it as an extension of that last albums big feeling

the last song once gets me everytime

and is probably one of the prettiest and romantic songs i ever did

but its weird too

sometimes when the odd child here or there chimes in along with my lyrics

it is a most disconcerting thing

in the mouths of children the words take on new and strange meanings…

sometimes i can tell if its me singing with myself in falsetto

or martins subtle backing vox

or sometimes a machine

some singing is interrupted by spoken word passages

and this stuff is hilariously pretentious and simultaneously gloriously bent

its got it all on there

i listened to it twice today

i have to say it really is a rather riveting listen

it was a good record to march along to

it was a good record to delve into or just take in superficially

melody and attention to small detail

we should get a doctorate each for being so fucking clever

because this aint rock for dummies

but lo it doth rock indeed in a few places

and martins guitar moves into harder spaces

and the bass pushes along just like i probably would have done it

if it had actually been me

you see the music martin writes reminds me very much of something

that i might have come across myself if i was doing the music

so i instantly can see what the singing must be

its incredible that 2 such different sorts of geezers

could intersect at this point

and create this single minded thing

you see (and this goes for everyone)

we may seem different

but

inside we are the same

now isnt that a nifty way to end this blatant little blurb?!