Even if you’ve only a superficial knowledge of the city’s underground musical heritage, you’ll know that they have a different way of doing things in Liverpool and that Geoff Davies’ Probe Plus label must take a fair portion of the credit for that.
Never a man to take the obvious route, Geoff’s four decades in the filthy music biz may have spawned its’ commercial own goals, but for having the courage to bring us the likes of Half Man Half Biscuit, The Onset, Gone to Earth, Jegsy Dodd and a host of less-celebrated names, he deserves major respect. That he can still be arsed to go out on a limb and release physical product in these days of diminishing financial returns gets my vote every time.
The latest release on Geoff’s Probe Plus label is a typically uncompromising and magnificent affair. Built around Craig Sinclair’s idiosyncratic song-writing talents, LOVECRAFT is a typically out-there Scouse Pop prospect. Comprising nine members wielding arcane instruments like clarinets, haunted synthesizers and toy pianos as well as the more traditional Rock’n’Roll staples like guitars and drums, they are named after a celebrated Victorian era horror writer and come brandishing a debut album saluting one of fellow Victorian literary master M.R James’ finest ghost stories.
Fittingly, most of the songs on ‘Whistle And I’ll Come To You, My Lad’ drag an undertow of menace in their wake. Sinclair has a droll and slightly eerie vocal delivery (a little like fellow unsung Scouse singer/ song-writer Vinny Peculiar) and it’s the ideal vehicle for the delivery of songs about everything from cannibal feasts to unrequited telepathic love and skinning reindeers. The music, meanwhile, is a cosmic sprawl of styles, but hooks and choruses are never too far away and with 14 tracks clocking in at around the 45 minute mark, any Prog-gy tendencies are reined in.
With its’ quirky guitars, memorable trumpet solo and edge of madness lyrics (“one pill makes you larger and one pill makes you small...and I will take them all”) trailer single (Sorry, I mean ‘track’) ‘Royal Jelly’ was a fine entree for album’s heartily eclectic picnic. From thereon in, you’re invited to feast on everything from hard-driving Stooges-meet-Devo art pop sandwiches (‘One For the Furnace’)through to Super Furries-style acid lollies (‘Mudman’s Brunchday’) and ominously stylish acoustic ballad cakes like ‘Baby Jeans.’
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Elsewhere, weirdo electro-pop (‘Jimmy Riddle’) is created from Trio-style Casio beats. Impending murder most foul (“you have the blade and you know what you have to do”) stalks through the classy, Divine Comedy-esque pop of ‘Jade’ and ‘Vinegar Tom’ countenances waltz-tempo Pagan Folk and ear-splitting sonic squalls. Superficially, the closing track ‘Little Bones’ is the sparsest, most elegant set piece here, but its’ graceful violin and baritone guitars are actually building a bed for a song about infanticide to rest in sepulchral peace.
Despite its’ cautionary title, ‘Whistle And I’ll Come To You, My Lad’ is stuffed with cosmic, psych-tinged songsmithery that’s nigh on impossible to resist. These guys clearly understand a thing or thirteen about how to make their idiosyncratic Pop sounds go bump in the night, so ignoring them may well have perilous consequences.
Probe Plus Records online
Lovecraft MySpace page
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