Drake, Bob

Medallion Animal Carpet

Label: Recommended Records Country: UK

"Bob Drake is a virtuoso bass player, guitarist, producer, studio engineer and composer. In the past he's played with US prog rock outfit 'Thinking Plague', and post-punk popsters 'Hail', and as a producer he's handled everyone from Ice T to Engelbert Humperdink.. He still plays and records with the super complex '5UU's', who have released two CD's on ReR.
Installed in his rural studio in the Pyrenees Drake is able to produce solo CDs entirely to his own design. His last release, 'Little Black Train', was described by TOP magazine as "what might have happened if the Magic Band was asked to provide the soundtrack for the film Deliverence". The Wire said; "Furiously compressed instrumentals, violent changes in tempo and texture, roots, avant garde and minimalism all come under Bob Drake's all encompassing brief".
Bob's new CD takes it even further, forcing the unlikely marriage of post-hillbilly songs, fingerpicking guitar and Faust-inspired electronic noise. You know you are in for an unusual experience from the opening seconds. The music approaches gradually, like a distant train, and then arrives in a sudden burst of wild uncontrollable energy. There are unbelievable transformations in style and direction, like a hyper manic version of Bonnie Prince Billy, alternating with Beefhart and Zappa tuning in to The Beatles. Episodes of trance dance music are inter cut with a church service straight out of a spaghetti Western, and elsewhere ancient rock 'n' roll is spiked with raucous post modern noise. Everything is speeding up or slowing down, or stopping dead unexpectedly only to launch off at breakneck speed in another twisted direction.
For the last quarter of the record the complexities are put to one side, and we are invited to a bluesy, violin soaked cajun' all night party, with Bob's choirboy vocals hollering at us through the chaos. Weird production effects abound- at one time the drums appear on the far left of the stereo picture and the guitar far right - so even when the genre stabilises, you are never quite sure of your bearings.
This is bold, adventurous but still rootsy music. Take a deep breath."-ReR OneSheet