Five For Friday

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Anton Barbaeu Glitch Wizard and Dig The Lght.

Friday 11th July 2025 was an auspicious day for Anton Barbeau fans and followers, because he released not one, but two brand new albums, Acording to The Man Hisself, Glitch Wizard was recorded  bfore Dig The Light. He furthur says that Glitch Wizard is a psychedelic rock record and Dig The Ligh is his album of perfect Pop songs. While that's broadly tue, both discs display Barbeau's uncanny knack of writing soungs that stick in the mind, often days after you've heard them only once. I've lived with these records for aboout ten days now ( the Spanish PO were very slow to deliver the goods) and the Earthly delights of both albums have become clear.

OK, Glitch Wizard first. It's somehow a denser record tha its twin with more psychedelic flourishes than Dig The Light, and a little bit darker too (but not that much!). The title track kicks off procedings in fine style, followed by Nightcrawler, for me one of the high points of both records. Cigarettes refers to Anton's Father who was the smoker in the family and Soft Golden Halo sounds like Can to these ears. I won't go into too much detail about each track, suffice to say that Glitch Wizard is a career high, in my not so humble opinion! I love it. The players are are mostly Barbeau veterans: Andy Metcalfe, former Soft Boy, Egyptian and member of Three Minurte Tease, plays exemplary bass on five songs, Dave Gregory, late of XTC and The Dukes Of Stratosphear contribute guitar to Feed and Off The Hook and Julian Cope collaborater Donald Ross Skinner plays great guitar on the title track. Here's the cover:

 

So, on to Dig The Light. It opens with the just -a -shade -over- a -minute  Moondust Hallelujah and then the party starts with Dogstar, issued previously as a single on the Fruits De Mer label.  Here Anton mentions "Cups of creamy tea", one of his recurring themes. It should have been a hit but instead was limited to something like 300 copies. Check out the video where ever you can find it. Direceted by Anton's wife and partner in music, Julia VBH, it's a cracker. But I digress: Anton says this is an album of Pop songs but there are psychedelic flourishes everywhere. A look at the tracklisting reveals Cosmic Mind Awaken,, Mushroom Madmess and Mahogany Jam Jar - if they aren't psyche , then I'm a stuffed rabbit (stop laughing at the back). I Saw Syd relates a true story from Anton's time in Cmabridge and Hallelujah Sun closes Dig The Light in fine style. Musicians include Barry Melton, the guitarist fom SF legends, Country Joe And The Fish, on Dogstar and Dave Gregory again on the title song.

Well, I can't choose between these records and fortunately, don't hav to! I'm delighted with both of them and look forward to acquainting myself with their charms further

Available from Anton Barbeau's Bandcamp page or direct fromthe record compan, Think Like A Key Music, who provide an excellent mail order service. 

 

Monogroove Popsicle Drive Thru

The other day I was contacted by a very polite chap named Rin Lennon, who asked me if I was still taking submissions for my blog, The Purple Bottle. Now, The Purple Bottle has been dormant for the last fifteen years. However, as he asked so nicely and sent me mp3s of his band, Monogroove, how could I refuse?

The first song that came up on the Monogroove demo album was a versuion of the old Young Rascals song, Good Lovin'. A craking take on it which banished memories of the Grateful Dead stretching it out to 40 minutes!  Their original material is as strong; songs like All Day All Night (not The Kinks' tune) and Dangerous are melodice but with an almos Garage band flair. Their Sixties influences are pretty obvios and that's right up my street.

It's very nice to find a new band to get behind - I shall be checking out their other albums to be sure

https://monogroove.bandcamp.com/music

https://www.facebook.com/monogrooveband/

 

And another collage...

I wonder if this one will get an adult content warning for The Purple Bottle!

Random Saturday Collage

The Purple Phonogram

This is what we use to play all our fab sounds at the Bottle!

Kimberley Rew - The Safest Place

When I recently visited Kimberley Rew's website http://www.kimberleyrew.com/ to check on the

progress of The Bible Of Bop reissue, I was delighted to find that not

only was my old flavourite available again, but that Kim has a brand
new studio album out, albeit only available as a download. I had no
idea that this was on the cards and it seems to have slipped out with
no fanfare whatsoever. This is a great shame as The Safest Place is
easily the equal of any of Kim's previous albums and is thus a perfect
pop treat for those who love a catchy melody matched with witty lyrics
and chiming guitars.
The album opens with the Kinks-like bounce of The End Of Our Rainbow
which melts into one of the most gorgeous middle eights I've heard in a
long time. It's the perfect opener as it contains all the elements that make the album such a joy and the closing laughter sums things up. It's followed by the title track, an affecting ballad with touches of accordian and spot-on harmonies from Lee Cave-Berry (Mrs Rew) who also plays exemplary bass throughout. Next up is Put A Little Sunshine which sounds like a potential summer anthem, maybe not on the scale of Walking On Sunshine perhaps but it proves Kimberley still has the enviable knack of knocking off instant pop gems which cry out to be heard coming out of the radio on a hot summer's day.
Kimberley's love of fifties' rock'n'roll comes through on Pub Conversation Blues as he reels the lyrics off in the manner of Too Much Monkey Business, in the New Orleans strut of Wednesday Jam with its crisp drumming and excellent piano flourishes and most overtly on the homage of Domino. However the album comes across as being rootsy without being self consiously retro and Kim's understated guitar is always at the service of the song. Indeed, all the musicians are excellent which leads me to my one gripe - no sleeve notes! I'm still not used to downloads and like to have something physical in my hand to read whilst listening. Still this is a minor moan and doesn't detract from the quality of what is one of the best albums I've heard all year. I just hope that it gets a wider distribution and more publicity than it seems to have at the moment. You can buy it here:
http://www.cdbaby.com/Artist/KimberleyRew2

http://itunes.apple.com/gb/album/the-safest-place/id367555053

http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Safest-Place/dp/B003HLGU62/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1274214114&sr=8-2-fkmr0

Just because...

Why I am so healthy...