East Anglia sub-pop/psychedelia veteran SHANE O'CONNOR here offers a snapshot-style collection that consists of seventeen brief works-in-progress.
Twanging experimentalism combined with O'Connor's distinctly 'English' folksy vocal style, is instantly evocative of Syd Barrett, though this patchwork psychedelia is several shades more insistent and uptight than that of the looo-ooose Pink Floyd maestro, as 100mph ditties with frequently abrupt endings pepper the (un)finished article.
Is that a table tennis ball bouncing wildly during the surreal and haunting 'Fast Puppy'? And teaspoons hitting the china ('Hospitalville')? The piano that recurs as the record progresses sounds tampered with (or 'prepared' if you like); detuned at the very least.
Often driven by hysteria, O'Connor's disjointed, 'unfinished' songwriting style is improvisational, disturbing and at times, utterly psychotic. If nothing else, this album is indicative of heavy LSD use. As such, it stands out as the work of a bona fide acid casualty.
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The record even includes a DOORS-pisstake pastiche. 'Normal-Cum-Odditea' takes 'People Are Strange' and drags it off on an uninhibited and quite mental tangent. It's here that I realise that the 'grinding teeth' sounds are of my own making.
Atonal throughout, a plethora of instruments have been used in the creative process, but as there's little evidence of skill or ability on any of them, O'Connor is a multi-instrumentalist in the very loosest sense of the word.
This isn't necessarily a bad thing (for me, the ideas are the most essential ingredient); there are plenty of brilliant artists who neither play nor sing particularly well. Here, however, the lack of both structure and melody are almost certain to grind your tolerance levels right down long before the end.
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