Derek McInnes may have come home to Scotland (sorry, football reference) but Bristol seems to be a more fertile ground for some other ex-patriot musicians. Paul Tierney aka Lonely Tourist seems to be doing pretty well for himself, and here’s another Scot who’s living on the Severn.
However, there the similarities there between the former Odeon Beat Club man (and indeed Aberdeen’s new manager) end. Even on the opener, ‘We Know You Lied’, it’s a nice guitar lick which could as easily be Vini Reily as Johnny Marr, while the line “Did you think we’d forget?” is delivered in a fairly cheery tone as multi-tracked vocals and brass provide a bed.
It continues in this enjoyable vein for a couple of minutes until squonky brass heralds what if it wasn’t for the swelling orchestral backing could easily turn into a death metal tune. It’s held in check, just until whatever musical spirit that kicked of the tune somehow wrests control from the dark side.
All plenty for one tune, but there are four more here – title track ‘The Spin’ is perhaps more conventional, though this is relative – distorted vocals and electronic backing eventually kick into life with distorted guitar and real headbanging rhythms. It goes a wee bit prog at the end but that should probably come as no great surprise.
‘Cradle’ is a fairly standard guitar-and-vocals tune, but ‘Come Quietly’ is slower, piano-driven effort with the occasional synth wobble which eventually grows into something bigger and more raucous, and would be spectacular with a full band I suspect.
The set finishes with a 10-minute tune – I might have said “epic” but have probably used that cliche before – aptly titled ‘An Ending’ it starts off with guitar harmonics and the sound of forest rain (the kind of thing that might get you off to sleep if used as one of those noise generators for people who have insomnia problems).
However, you’d not ask Ewan Simpson to soundtrack your dreams. Cyclic guitar and some glissando noise ably back up his vocal, which sounds, honestly, a little tortured for what seems to start as a love song but the line “if you can’t do the time…” doesn’t bode well. Spoiler alert, though maybe not a great surprise the house burns down and a scarily big sound bursts from your speakers – the only surprise being that it’s not coming out of a 100 gazillion megawatt PA at an enormodome near you. Curiously, the tune, and EP, end with 4 minutes of rainforest nises that give way to soft static that eventually fade to nothing, and – second spoiler alert – don’t suddenly ‘reprise’ with a bloodcurling explosion of sound.
In all an anticlimax that comes with a sense of both disappointment and relief that there’s been nothing quite as crazy as the opener to follow. But that’s be clurlish. It’s massively creative and if the transition from making remarkable bedroom tunes to epic ‘mainstream’ publicity can be made, his may be a name we eventually hear more of.
