PJP Band:
And So It Goes:
OUF Records:
Out Now:
8/10
I lived in Plymouth for nigh-on 15 years and I can honestly say that, while it tried hard to form a music-scene that wasn't just made up of bands comprised of mullet-headed pony-tailed blues musicians, as a hub of creativity it's been sorely lacking sometimes, save for the excellent The Retreat in the '80s and Seth Lakeman.
Why this lack of artistic endeavour? Lord only knows - there's enough to get angry about (that's punk covered then), enough amazing scenery (folk and roots all sorted) and plenty to be proud of (techno and trance and hands to the lazers), but little in the way of a dark side, a challenging side or even an exciting side. Art plays second fiddle to the easy option sometimes.
Mind you, it's come on during the last few years - just listen to the highly-promising PJP Band, the city's latest export that sound for all the world like they've reached album number five, rather than just assembled a neat debut-album. And So It Goes absolutely brims with pluck, intricacy and confidence, defining PJP Band as an incongruous addition to the current 'indie' scene, whatever that is anymore.
Pitching somewhere between early Waterboys (vocally, leader Patrick-James Pearson is a bit like Mike Scott circa A Pagan Place), Art Brut (discordant jagged riffs beautifully shredded) and the super Blue Aeroplanes or The Fall (seemingly bonkers lyrics at odds with the music), much of this album is a triumph. Killer cuts such as Disciplines, Might or Moses and the highlight for me, Ole! We Ain't Prey, should be on BBC 6Music at least on a daily rotational basis, while the recent single I Am a Racer serves as a crossover point into slower, uncharted and sometimes uncertain territory towards the end of the album.
Of these more exploratory tracks, Stone Cold Cinema is perhaps the most memorable, if only for exceeding six minutes and sounding like it was hollered in a warehouse. The sinister pump-organ motif hovers in the background and Pearson gives up his guts with admirable aplomb. It shouldn't work but it does.
And then the album ignites once more and we get three more contenders for radio-play, namely the title-track which bashes and crashes its way through your speakers, before the epic and bloody splendid Embraceher draws to its melodic conclusion, sounding not unlike something Ed Harcourt might knock out. That's a good thing. And yes, they deserve that round of applause at the end of the record.
Overall and on the strength of most of this album, PJP Band deserve your attention from the get-go. There's a double-vinyl album edition as well as a CD and download (the latter's on Amazon) - but I reckon local label OUF is the place to head to here.
And So It Goes:
OUF Records:
Out Now:
8/10
Why this lack of artistic endeavour? Lord only knows - there's enough to get angry about (that's punk covered then), enough amazing scenery (folk and roots all sorted) and plenty to be proud of (techno and trance and hands to the lazers), but little in the way of a dark side, a challenging side or even an exciting side. Art plays second fiddle to the easy option sometimes.
Mind you, it's come on during the last few years - just listen to the highly-promising PJP Band, the city's latest export that sound for all the world like they've reached album number five, rather than just assembled a neat debut-album. And So It Goes absolutely brims with pluck, intricacy and confidence, defining PJP Band as an incongruous addition to the current 'indie' scene, whatever that is anymore.
Pitching somewhere between early Waterboys (vocally, leader Patrick-James Pearson is a bit like Mike Scott circa A Pagan Place), Art Brut (discordant jagged riffs beautifully shredded) and the super Blue Aeroplanes or The Fall (seemingly bonkers lyrics at odds with the music), much of this album is a triumph. Killer cuts such as Disciplines, Might or Moses and the highlight for me, Ole! We Ain't Prey, should be on BBC 6Music at least on a daily rotational basis, while the recent single I Am a Racer serves as a crossover point into slower, uncharted and sometimes uncertain territory towards the end of the album.
Of these more exploratory tracks, Stone Cold Cinema is perhaps the most memorable, if only for exceeding six minutes and sounding like it was hollered in a warehouse. The sinister pump-organ motif hovers in the background and Pearson gives up his guts with admirable aplomb. It shouldn't work but it does.
And then the album ignites once more and we get three more contenders for radio-play, namely the title-track which bashes and crashes its way through your speakers, before the epic and bloody splendid Embraceher draws to its melodic conclusion, sounding not unlike something Ed Harcourt might knock out. That's a good thing. And yes, they deserve that round of applause at the end of the record.
Overall and on the strength of most of this album, PJP Band deserve your attention from the get-go. There's a double-vinyl album edition as well as a CD and download (the latter's on Amazon) - but I reckon local label OUF is the place to head to here.