When occasional itm? favourite Daniel Patrick Quinn suddenly upped sticks in 2006 and moved to London (leaving a canceled gig behind) we’d imagined that this was the last we’d heard of him. Bizarrely, not only has he resurfaced, but it’s as the leader of One More Grain, who apparently released an album Pigeon English almost a year ago. What’s more, said album has received lavish praise from everyone from The Wire to the Sunday Times to… NME!?!?
While Quinn’s solo work (see itm #13 cover CD - Ed) described long rambles across the moors of his native north Lancashire (and South Queensferry) to backing of traditional instruments such as pipes and accordions, Isle of Grain sees him move to The Smoke - and when in Rome, he adopts some of the local customs, including the adoption of on some free jazzers as his backing band. I assume this means he’s living in a squat in Camberwell with former members of Henry Cow and Matching Mole.
As suggested, Quinn’s found a strong rhythm - you might not find yourself dancing to this, but - on ‘Jon Hasselhoff’ - a Gang of 4-style punkfunk rhythm underpins the tune and diverts this away from what is, as ever, a travelogue set to music… and while debut Ridin’ The Stang was a freakish example of this underappreciated genre, it’s great if remarkable that Quinn has managed to sell this to the masses (ok, if you can call The Wire mag representative of the Great British Public).
Quinn’s distinctive tones - sounding slightly Scottish borders now he’s in the south of England - are pivotal to the band’s sound, as he berates anyone who will listen, but presumably a queue at Euston Bus Station with “I’m sick of this town… the graffiti in the toilets… when the fog rolls in it’s hard to believe another town even existed”. There is, however, ‘Having a Ball’; like a chamber music version of Hookers Green with Nigel out of Half Man Half Biscuit rapping over the top: “Having a good time… loving it all”. We can only assume he’s on his holidays.
