Gang Colours is from Southampton, but does it matter that it doesn't matter? Have I got some uptight idea of musical geography? I've an uptight sense of almost everything else.
"Pebble Dash" is never going to make a great title. "Botley in Bloom" however is. A theme of suburbia in a normally more urban-minded musical style. He's doing the same thing with his performing name. Part of the endless spill out to the margins, riding on the ripple as it bounces back from the sides. It gets more local after the universal nature of "Heavy Petting" or "I Don't Want You Calling".
It sits on the piano, this album. The lines of melody and the sense of studiousness all sit there straight-backed at a piano in a front room somewhere. A tension of lazy lines and electronic teeth meshing together. Perhaps the tension of a lively mind in less lively surroundings. There are a few lyrics here and there to pull me in from riding to high in the clouds of my own fancy. A bit. "Forgive Me?" sounds as though he's singing in a mournful tone, "I've got to learn", but it's barely distinguishable. The idea is just to make muttering, mildly tortured noises. The musical equivalent of grunting under a fringe at the passing world.
"Rollo's Ivory Tale" has the feel of the Clangers messing around in that front room, enjoying the simple ring of the strings with the foot on the sustain pedal. Simple fun, looking out from music.
Rating: Mumbling out of Suburbs
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