Adam Stafford

Adam Stafford is becoming something of a renaissance man – and for a Falkirk Bairn, that’s no mean feat.
There’s his film directing – the award-winning Shutdown with Alan Bissett and a Twilight Sad promo under his belt, and of course, his work as frontman with Y’all Is Fantasy Island, as well as his recent solo work which includes some mightily impressive looped a cappella tunes.

It’s perhaps fitting then that this release comes on retro-cool cassette tape (let’s pretend that the download version and the promo CD sent to itm? don’t exist, for a moment).

There’s nine tracks on this album and in a way they give a potted summary of Stafford’s career so far – opening with ‘Fire & Theft’, and a cheery thought in: “The forecast says that we’re all dead”, its meandering guitar work recalling YiFi’s signature tune, ‘With Handclaps’. For the less initiated, there’s a hint of Build To Spill circa Perfect From Now On, but with a “la la la” chorus as curveball.

Most tracks feature Stafford’s exquisite but simple guitar work but each tune stands on its own – ‘Step Up, Raise Hands’ is a soulful effort, like a Fisher Price Sly Stone, while ‘Police No Speech’ is all shimmering guitar work which belies its introspective theme. ‘Temple of the Holy Ghost’ is a kind of a Native American chant driven by metronome and glitzed up with a wee string section.

Stafford has been busy since his band started their winding-down process which ended with an Edinburgh show this spring. Aside from Awnings, his one-man-beatbox project, there was also Music in the Mirabel, an album of covers. Harbour is all original compositions, and the instrumentation is more conventional, apart from ‘Shot Down You Summer Wannanees’ which is the standout track from his looped live set. ‘Frederick Wiseman’ however really IS a cappella, all celestial choirs which it’s easy to forget are the work of one person.

This album, for the first ‘proper’ solo release, actually puts together the former YiFi dream team, reuniting former members Robbie Lesuik and Steven Tosh, and indeed Paul Tonner, who released the band’s first album, is credited on the sleeve with “design and layout”. Which is apt as there is a lot of the claustrophobic feel of debut In Faceless Towns Forever about this release. Though rather than recording it in a derelict house it’s been conceived at the Chem19 studio by Paul Savage – how things change.

The title track is more meandering guitar, a bit like Durutti Column doing Eno. Or maybe Scott Walker. But this is the thing – it’s not a problem except for reviewers – that Stafford’s oeuvre is hard to define. And he’s not done yet – the emotionally charged closer, ‘Vast Crystal Skull’ is another surprise, closest perhaps to the Blue Nile – if Paul Buchanan and pals had dispensed with beats and instead tried to make post rock on a slide guitar.

But that is Adam Stafford all over – hard to pin down, harder still to fault.