Ex The The and Gadgets (see Tim Tones’s review of Gadgetree) person has been releasing material on various indie labels for many years now, including his collaboration with Paddy Bush ‘Skyscraping’ in the mid nineties.
I found this latest effort on his own web site and although not completely convinced by his earlier work decided to risk a tenner on it.
I have played it countless times since and rate it his best work to date.
The two audio samples on his site offered no clues to the complex and diverse material to be found on this engrossing record.
It’s really two albums on one CD as the 19 tracks are split into two distinctive halves. Tracks 1–10 are subtitled ‘arrivals’ and 11–19 ‘departures’.

‘Arrivals’ kicks off with the ghostly ‘Battleship Gray’ and the even more spooky ‘Fear Of Flying’. This title track does not leap out at you but slowly pulls you in as it builds into a repetitive chant that after a few listens reveals all kinds of subtle sonic mayhem.
From here on the tempo is increased with loop-based tracks such as Smoothound and the funky This Is Life. Tucker’s vocals are excellent throughout and are brought to the fore on the beautiful A Happier House, it’s nautical lyrics perfectly echoed in the lush strings, brass and harp arrangement.
Big Fire features what sounds like a sitar and stabbing cellos with a vocal that reminds me of Lennon at his best, all of which give way to guitar feedback that sounds like it is going to rip your speakers to pieces and wouldn’t have been out of place on The Velvet Underground’s ‘Sister Ray’. In fact the last two songs in the ‘arrivals’ section continue this slightly punkier theme with Kids (riffing guitars and thumping bass) and Rocket to Ride (heavy and throbbing).

The ‘departures’ section that follows is a gentler affair beginning with Always Remember You, a track that is…well laid back! Cool in a J.J.Cale kind of way. Like most of the songs in this half it is more conventionally arranged and performed. A nice touch that brings you down gently from the aural mischief that precedes it. There is plenty of humour too. Tracks like ‘The Road To Marrakech’ with its Deliverance style banjo and Saxophone Song, a Lou Reed kind of rap with Tucker explaining why the Sax is not his favourite instrument are clever and funny as is the nineteen twenties croon To Be Or Not.
Proceedings are rounded off with Skybowl, a pretty straightforward slice of pop that goes out on a long (and extremely catchy) ‘la la la’ repeated fade.

It’s a long and complex record this. I’m not sure anyone could ever say they love every second of it due its incredible scope but it does grow on you with every play and is an extremely rewarding listen.