|  I
was a big fan of the last ‘Deep Space’ album (see F&F9),
so this was another Wobble release I was really looking forward to.
It’s not very often that Wobble repeats himself, but I’m certainly
glad he has. Not that ‘Beach Fervour’ is a direct copy of
the first ‘Deep Space’ album, it’s similar in style,
the slow pumping low-end bass, the haunting flutes and horns, and like
the first album it sounds like one whole piece of music rather than
a collection of individual tracks.
All tracks are
improvised instrumentals, and were recorded at various stages in 1999,
in between the Deep Space live shows. It’s a sort of modern mix
of trance and dub, not the horrible electronic trance doing the rounds,
but genuine sounds, on genuine instruments by genuine musicians. Long
time collaborators Clive Bell and Jean-Pierre Rasle feature alongside
new recruits Chris Cookson, guitar, and Mark Saunders, drums. I was
very impressed by Mark’s drumming at last years live shows and
it’s great to hear it translate to record. Parts of ‘Beach
Fervour’, especially tracks like ‘Kinky Mantra’ &
‘As Night Falls Part 3’ aren’t a million miles away from
PiL, not so much in terms of instruments or sound, but in the way they’re
structured. Wob and Mark work well together, and the others are free
to do their own thing on top. It’s very much a layered sound. This
second album is a bit more ‘upbeat’ than last year’s
debut. There’s greater use of keyboards and guitar, and the bass
and drums are absolutely thundering. It’s such a ‘big’
sound with so much going on that it’s one of those albums that
just sounds fucking great loud!! It’s very uplifting, and a great
record to relax to. Some of the album may be what you could loosely
call ‘ambient’ but it’s anything but boring, in fact
tracks like ‘As Night Falls Part 1’ could easily be club hits.
If you’re
a fan of the last ‘Deep Space’ album this is a definite ‘must
have’, or if you haven’t been following Wob’s “career”
of late but you’ve been inspired by The Damage Manual to see what
he’s up to these days this is the perfect place to start...
To round off
here’s a little piece of trivia, the afternoon I got it I was blasting
it out when the council arrived to fix our stairs, I don’t know
what council workers are like where you stay (if you even have such
things!), but the ones in ‘Glezga’ are notoriously bad. They’re
always cocky, arrogant and loud. Well, I have to say ‘Beach Fervour’
certainly kept them in their place, I hardly heard a peep out of them
the whole time they were here, I think it scared the shit out of them!
Now that’s what I call a good record! |