Trickster and Martyn Savigar impressed with their Beats For Bars project and have now expanded their range of collaborators to weird, wonderful and sometimes audacious effect. In the immediate vicinity, there’s former Specimen and Siouxsie & The Banshees guitarist Jon Klein, drummer Chris Bell [also Specimen but a bevy of 80s giants too] and, showing up in the course of this hallucinogenic journey, Billie Holliday, Lou Reed, Catatonia, Marc Bolan and even the young John Peel, whose unmistakeable and always welcome tones talk about woodland creatures on ‘Deaf Aid’ amidst another calming space-shuffle before singer Anna Jacyszyn wafts in. The concept is mash-up taken to diverse extremes creating slow motion symphonies which plant some familiar voices in fields of dreams where the mood is deep, dubbed and drenched in ghosts. Billie Holliday looms in ‘Trav’lin Light’ to spine-melting effect before ‘Wild On The Sidewalk’ shows what might’ve happened if Lou Reed had imbibed pure LSD instead of speed. ‘Soul Clapp’ creates a new hiphop hybrid, ‘White Space’ is an orchestral treatment of goth-glamsters Specimen and there are tracks like ‘Deuteronomy’ where the players stretch out after the guests have left. An opiated aural delight from start to finish, by which time you might be stroking the ceiling like a long-lost friend. There are more free parts to download and part two – the download-only and more uptempo Mirrors – is to follow. I didn’t think they made them like this any more and the world’s a better place.
5 Out Of 5
Reviewed By: Kris Needs
