Voiceprint Music - Release

Release

£10.99

In stock

Catalogue number

RFVP013CD

Release date

13/07/2009

Format

Label

Radiant Future

Martin Gordon

Time Gentlemen, Please!

Disc 1

1. Elephantasy 2. Houston We Gotta Drinking Problem 3. On and On 4. 21st Century Blues 5. Come Out Come Out Whoever You Are 6. I Feel Fine (Lennon/McCartney) 7. If Boys Could Talk and Girls Could Think 8. Talulah Does the Hula From Hawaii 9. Shoot The Women First 10. Panama 11. Incognito Ergo Sum 12. I Have a Chav 13. Interesting Times 14. Passionate About Your Elevator 15. I'm Budgie (Don't Fly Me) 16. You Can't See Me

Bassist & composer. Former member of ‘Kimono My House' era Sparks, then formed ‘first supergroup of glam' Jet, who became Radio Stars. Later worked with all and sundry - Rolling Stones, Kylie Minogue, Sezen Aksu and the Tiger Lillies to name a few. Waited until 2003 to embark on solo career as he ‘didn't want to flood the market'. Fifth album in the Mammal Trilogy series, the earlier parts being (I) The Baboon in the Basement, (II) The Joy of More Hogwash, (III) God's on His Lunchbreak and (IV) The World is Your Lobster.

Thrashing guitars, thrumming ukelele, raucous brass, double bass and bar-room piano provide the sonic back-drop. The sterling vocals of Swede Pelle Almgren are once again to the fore, and his glorious trademark harmonies are a career-best, especially on the über-ballad ‘21st Century Blues'. Live performance is key, and studio trickery is either reduced to a minimum or is transparent. In correspondence with the bigger picture, each song has an ending, with not a fade to be heard. From faux big-band swing (‘If Boys Could Talk and Girls Could Think') to breakneck amphetamine-pop (‘Interesting Times'), from dramatic big-hair ballads sung in Latin about the perils of celebrity (‘Incognito Ergo Sum') to pub-piano sing-alongs bemoaning cheap flights (‘I'm Budgie (Don't Fly Me)'), from crunching pop decrying the actions of the Almighty (‘Come Out
Come Out Whoever You Are') to the quasi-Floydian epic ‘You Can't See Me' which closes the set, Gordon spans the gamut.

The sonic melange includes flocks of bleating sheep (‘I Have a Chav'), the gentle splashing of waves around the protagonist's canoe (‘Panama') and the uncertain countdown of the flight controller at the Kennedy Space Centre (‘Houston We Gotta Drinking Problem'). Take the blueprint of popular song, redesign to serve the purposes of rock, add a leavening of George Formby and the anarchic absurdities of Stanley Holloway and the Bonzos, and file under ‘new music-hall'.

SHORT BIO:

Martin Gordon, irritatingly described by Classic Rock as ‘like Brian Eno fronting 10cc at a cleverness convention' releases the fifth and final part of his Mammal Trilogy. Beginning his career with Californian oddboy-band Sparks for their seminal album ‘Kimono My House', he moved on to form ‘glam-supergroup' Jet and punk pranksters Radio Stars before twigging that working for other people is far more lucrative. He spent a long while as jobbing bass player, keyboardist, cowriter and producer for a long list of fascinating, sensitive artists and dull idiots (including the Rolling Stones, Kylie Minogue, George Michael, Blur, Asha Bhosle, Primal Scream, the Tiger Lillies and Sezen Aksu) before embarking upon a solo career in 2003 with his solo debut ‘The Baboon in the Basement'. The Mammal Trilogy continued with ‘The Joy of More Hogwash', ‘God's On His Lunchbreak' and ‘The World is Your Lobster', and this release brings the Trilogy to completion. After this fifth and final outpouring of bile and spite disguised as good-natured entertainment, there will be no further parts. That's basically it.