Super 8 – T-T-T-Technicolour Melodies (Futureman Records)
CD / DL
Out Now
7.5 / 10
UK based singer/songwriter releases album of non-stop,
hip-hop, folk rock.
The joy of reviewing music is that it throws up albums that
you otherwise never have encountered. The
joy is made bigger by some of the quality of those releases. T-T-T-Technicolour Melodies from Super 8 is
one such album.
Written, performed, recorded and produced in true lo-fi style
by Paul Ryan this is an album with many influences. Cited as being motivated by The Monkees there
are also other clear (and not so clear) ‘tributes’ held within. Maybe Deeper Than The Deepest Sea has more
than a hint of Screamadelica era Primal Scream and Catsuit may even a tip of the hat in the direction
of Donovan or Cat Stevens and, with a voice coming in somewhere between Brother
JT and Lloyd Cole things couldn’t really be much rosier.
It’s all incredibly good stuff, some brilliant melodies and highly addictive choruses – take the title track for instance which would take a
soulless individual not to feel something during playback. One of those repetitive straplines that is impossible to shake free, a fabulous militarian percussion beat towards end and,
simply a great tune.
Ryan nestles in comfortably with many of those great
songwriters around today – Stu Kidd, Ben Mason, Johnno Casson – the sort who
seem to effortlessly write songs that you instantly take to your heart. There might be touches of vintage Dylan thrown
into Super 8 too, that croaky, almost lazy vocal that sometimes feels as though
it won’t last until the end of the line.
Just A Serenade and To Morocco are wonderful acoustic contributions and Travelling
Light also continues the feel.
The wonderfully titled S.K.Y (Stop Killing Yourself) begins
with a backwards recording and continues with a sound that is maybe meant to
simulate a life support machine behind some genuinely hearlfelt lyrics and, could Hey Non Believer be a hidden tribute to the The Monkees’ biggest hit as
it enters blues territory? Wonderful
guitar playing indeed.
Ending with My Sweet Baby Jane you can’t help but feel that
you’ve stumbled across something pretty good with T-T-T-Technicolour Melodies as
it appears to be one of those albums that will continually be taken from the music collection and given an airing.
Great stuff.
No comments:
Post a Comment