Tidings, the first U.S. release from London's Wolf People, isn't released until February, but there is plenty on the 'nets and in the vault that will suitably prep you for the album's arrival. My conversation with Jack Sharp was enlightening. I was worried that Sharp may be taking the entire psych-blues revival of his band a bit too far -- and I've never really been one for the retro-feelin' it-headband motif. But Tidings is different and Sharp, formally a hip-hop producer, knows the exact roots he wants to ferment. Namely, that would be the Ladbroke Grove circuit that included bands like Mighty Baby, Spooky Tooth, the early Hawkwind, Edgar Broughton, The Deviants, and Pink Fairies -- diamonds I really dig but know little about. I knew our conversation was going in the right direction when we started discussing the need for children to know about that history -- about the Groundhogs and the Family, and especially an album like Parachute by the Pretty Things (one of my all-time favorites). In fact, a colleague of Sharp's compiled a Ladbroke retrospective Cries from the Midnight Circus back in 2007 (which coincidentally takes it's name from a song from Parachute). It's essential listening, if only to dig a little deeper into what was, until now, a British treasure unearthed in the States. Here's a fairly comprehensive essay on the Ladbroke scene and links to find a copy of the comp.
And here's a little Wolf People to whet your appetite in anticipation for Tidings.
No comments:
Post a Comment