THE SCARAMANGA SIX's PHANTOM HEAD was recorded at Electrical Audio in Chicago by Steve Albini. It's the band's seventh album in eleven years and probably their best. I say "probably" because THE SCARAMANGA SIX have made at least three superlative albums already, and none of the others are what anyone could call lightweight or below par.
The striking differentness of this album is a big part of its magic. To start with, there is a marked sense of space and freedom about it. A wide stereo mix (with a drummer at either flank) contributes a cinematic scale and perspective to the familiar onslaught. The spaces are audible and unsettling from the first bars. We are made to wait a full 40 seconds before the vocal arrives. This album's more subtle and more complex than its predecessors. Using two drummers works brilliantly. Stephen "Stuffy" Gilchrist is a Wrath Records stalwart, Gareth Champion is the newer permanent fixture. Neither needs to be fussy, together they are dynamite.
James Kenosha, a recent recruit sits near the middle, adding luxuriously secret piano. It gives that extra harmony while adding to the percussive energy of the whole sound in a way that mere keyboards never can. This works especially well on "The Bristol Butcher".
The permanent nucleus of the band, Steve and Paul Morricone and Julia Arnez play bass and guitars. Steve and Paul front the singing bits.
Lyrically we have familiar Scaramanga themes. Emotional cruelty, the dehumanised corporate dispersonality, megalomania, sociopathy, revenge and physical violence. We have a cruel swipe that zings over the heads of "The Stepford Bands". The targets in this song are the robotically reprogrammed young musicians who trundle on and off what's left of the pop industry stage with their smiles and their vacuity. It has the band's typical well-drawn line of comic book artistry, the truth of imagination and (of course) big emotional therapy for the creators and for the audience).
And we also have "The Bristol Butcher". That tautly-sprung Scaramanga pysche absolutely bursts wide open on that one. Damn me, it’s a classic. Within 30 seconds we've had 6 huge tropes. The Albini approach to recording really comes into its own. The near-live feel gives it genuine drama and excitement. It’s cram full of ideas and changes and the end result is so much better for not having been recorded in bits and painstakingly lined up and homogenised. Even after five plays I'm still cringing behind the sofa in case something goes wrong. Guitars get frenetic and Kenosha's piano spasms like a teenager in a strop. Red meat indeed.
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I would also bring your attention to the Philip K. Dick emulation of "We Are The Blind" "… any queries regarding your statutory rights and benefits must be levied in person with subhuman resources on the 97th floor" it intones . The ghostly return of Thatcherism to Britain's drowning shores gives the song a chilling resonance. And who (mystery time!) is the character in "They Put You On A Pedestal"? Is it someone we know?
But whatever's going on, the constant joy of this album is listening to the band playing better than they've ever sounded. It's inventive and provocative. The excitement (and maybe the anxiety?) is present at all times. I know that whatever track I drop onto will have rewards and treats. The boys from Weston-super-Mare have never been in better voice. The guitars have never rung so fluently or with so much variety. Every song could be made into a Scandinavian TV series with 12 episodes. (except "I Am The Cardinal". That one could be a low budget popesploitation movie with sacrilegious headgear burning in Arthur Brown style and probably is). The theatrical tendencies in the band never stay at home, thank goodness.
http://thescaramangasix.bandcamp.com/album/phantom-head
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