Sad Accordions – The Colours & The Kill EP
The Rainboot label (already something of a trademark of quality for songwriting finds) has struck rough diamond with Sad Accordions ( Seth from Whiskey Priest in slightly more expansive mood). An EP that sparks and fizzes, it still possesses the drama and melancholy of Whiskey Priest but has a little more in the way of wide-screen aspirations.
It kicks down the door with ‘Sacrificial Chumpsucker Diatribe’. Then it sails near Radiohead with ‘You Can’t Hide From It’ – it does the quiet-till-middle-eight-then-blistering-to-fade thing like a mutha fucka. Then it bares its bucolic barfly fangs on ‘Fallen Czars’ – coming on like a Bowry-bum Bowie.
Whiskey Priest, indeed.
The first of two 7 minute plus tracks, ‘Savage’ rolls in on ambient waves that will almost inevitably break on the shore of a harsh island. But, although it builds it never quite explodes – more like the sun coming up bright after the dark, a euphoria gained after the night’s tension. ‘Inside Out’ could be Paisley Underground from the 80s, think Rain Parade , but the vocal sounds remarkable.
The 7 minute coda of ‘The Holy Desert Blooms’ sees the storm passing and an optimistic reverie marching out of the clouds, across the sand and into the possibility of hope flowering even in the desert. Some Vini Reilly picking takes us towards the breakdown of the song floating away finally to respite, if not peace.