Troubles? I Got A Bartender
**RIYL Zelionople, Labradford, Bohren und der Club of Gore, Mark Hollis** "David McLean’s Aging project returns to the label with a suite of noirish balladry and bar room dirges, painting a murky, multi-instrumental portrait of man under the influence. Although the main focus of these recordings is largely McLean’s guitar, the spaciousness and atmosphere that characterised his solo piano debut ‘I Swear I Saw Her Halo’ is still very much intact. Pairing with drummer Andrew Cheetham for three of the five cuts, McLean’s sunken and dungeoned melodies act as a perfect foil for this extraordinary percussionists thoughtful dexterity and propulsive weight. Culled from several improvised encounters, McLean utilises an array of melancholic loops, volumes swells and hushed guitar licks, channeling Loren Connors and Mark Nelson to provide a canvas for Cheetham’s simmering percussion work; both dueling to create three very distinct mood pieces that narrate back alley menace, opiate calm and slow burning melancholy. For the remaining ‘songs’, McLean decamped into his own home studio to craft two experimental pieces aiming for the same woozy looseness of the original jams. ‘Vampire Body Blues’ is a tar black examination of sun starved guitar dissonance blushed by mournful brass and woodwind, erupting into a redemptive Morricone-esque finale. The aptly titled closer, ‘Keening & Crying’, pours wailing saxophones into the listeners ears as a drunken beat makes its way through a fog of organ and Fender Rhodes. A late night vigil for the demon drink and intended for nocturnal consumption, a fact mirrored by in house designer Lewis McLean’s pitch black, pulp inspired artwork."
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**RIYL Zelionople, Labradford, Bohren und der Club of Gore, Mark Hollis** "David McLean’s Aging project returns to the label with a suite of noirish balladry and bar room dirges, painting a murky, multi-instrumental portrait of man under the influence. Although the main focus of these recordings is largely McLean’s guitar, the spaciousness and atmosphere that characterised his solo piano debut ‘I Swear I Saw Her Halo’ is still very much intact. Pairing with drummer Andrew Cheetham for three of the five cuts, McLean’s sunken and dungeoned melodies act as a perfect foil for this extraordinary percussionists thoughtful dexterity and propulsive weight. Culled from several improvised encounters, McLean utilises an array of melancholic loops, volumes swells and hushed guitar licks, channeling Loren Connors and Mark Nelson to provide a canvas for Cheetham’s simmering percussion work; both dueling to create three very distinct mood pieces that narrate back alley menace, opiate calm and slow burning melancholy. For the remaining ‘songs’, McLean decamped into his own home studio to craft two experimental pieces aiming for the same woozy looseness of the original jams. ‘Vampire Body Blues’ is a tar black examination of sun starved guitar dissonance blushed by mournful brass and woodwind, erupting into a redemptive Morricone-esque finale. The aptly titled closer, ‘Keening & Crying’, pours wailing saxophones into the listeners ears as a drunken beat makes its way through a fog of organ and Fender Rhodes. A late night vigil for the demon drink and intended for nocturnal consumption, a fact mirrored by in house designer Lewis McLean’s pitch black, pulp inspired artwork."
**RIYL Zelionople, Labradford, Bohren und der Club of Gore, Mark Hollis** "David McLean’s Aging project returns to the label with a suite of noirish balladry and bar room dirges, painting a murky, multi-instrumental portrait of man under the influence. Although the main focus of these recordings is largely McLean’s guitar, the spaciousness and atmosphere that characterised his solo piano debut ‘I Swear I Saw Her Halo’ is still very much intact. Pairing with drummer Andrew Cheetham for three of the five cuts, McLean’s sunken and dungeoned melodies act as a perfect foil for this extraordinary percussionists thoughtful dexterity and propulsive weight. Culled from several improvised encounters, McLean utilises an array of melancholic loops, volumes swells and hushed guitar licks, channeling Loren Connors and Mark Nelson to provide a canvas for Cheetham’s simmering percussion work; both dueling to create three very distinct mood pieces that narrate back alley menace, opiate calm and slow burning melancholy. For the remaining ‘songs’, McLean decamped into his own home studio to craft two experimental pieces aiming for the same woozy looseness of the original jams. ‘Vampire Body Blues’ is a tar black examination of sun starved guitar dissonance blushed by mournful brass and woodwind, erupting into a redemptive Morricone-esque finale. The aptly titled closer, ‘Keening & Crying’, pours wailing saxophones into the listeners ears as a drunken beat makes its way through a fog of organ and Fender Rhodes. A late night vigil for the demon drink and intended for nocturnal consumption, a fact mirrored by in house designer Lewis McLean’s pitch black, pulp inspired artwork."