St. Just Vigilantes - Pastor of Oaks, Shepherd of Stones

Our review
Customer reviews
Press release

4...according to our Brett on Wed 08 Oct, 2008.

Nnnyurgh.. I went to see Melvins last night with Ant, I've got a fuzzy brain and swim vision now.. I think my head is full of cider-soaked cotton wool balls like the ones I fed to the ducks that time. Probably not the best conditions for reviewing this St. Just Vigilantes CD as much as I like it. Pastor of Oaks, Shepherd of Stones is quite a tough little monkey to get a grip on, throwing up all sorts of half-comparisons - such as forest folk, laptoppy ambience, music boxes and classic psychedelia - but somehow none of these seem quite right; I think they might've stumbled upon something fairly unique here in their combination of elements which is probably about all you can ask of a band in this age of ours, big bloody postmodern bastard that it is. As far as comparisons to other bands go, the more straightforward rocky tracks bring to mind Wooden Shjips while at various points on the album I'm reminded a little bit of an earthier Grails (ironic since Phil and I swapped review duties on this and the Grails album). If you're after something laid back, quietly experimental and highly atmospheric you could do a fair bit worse.. Packaged in a very nicely designed digipak on the ever-reliable Static Caravan.

Transparent Face and Static Caravan are proud to present "Pastor of Oaks, Shepherd of Stones", the debut release from St. Just Vigilantes. Clocking in at 55 minutes, this blotter paper cascade is the work of Little Sparta's Alan Boyd and Jonathan Twilight Orr, an erstwhile Irish Jihadi with a cape of crystal visions. Having met in the rainforests of British Columbia some twenty years ago, it was not until late 2007 that the Jihadi climbed into his balloon and set course for Roman Londinium, floating for months before descending upon the Spartan in his clockwork tower. For one week they popped and fizzed, refracting light through hopeful wires and broken instruments to conjure this work of strange alchemical beauty. And what a joyfully peculiar creature it is. Pastor of Oaks, is a shape-shifting dervish where pop mantras melt into vespers for broken angles and hymns for the dream brigades. It's a cactus trance of ancient metronomes, ESP murmurs and pomegranate flavoured candy canes; kaleidoscopic drift giving voice to ashtray throwing poltergeists, grooving as they do, twisting the night away. An unborn baby's heart beats next to a flurry of incandescent splendour and the vigilantes quote the poet Rumi as they stumble and skip. Histories without words are the cords that bind and (for now) Just is patron saint of opiate mystics; Sufi Strung Out, Shepherd of Stones. This is a unique piece of genuinely progressive music that draws in a huge range of ideas and influences to create a long player that will appeal to fans of everything from Turkish field recordings and pagan folk to the skewed pop of the Flaming Lips and Granddaddy. Electronics and terrestrial instruments come together, blending songs with tone poems and wide-eyed melodies; at once beguiling and compelling, this release sets the trajectory for both St. Just Vigilantes and Transparent Face, a no nonsense boutique for home listeners and astral ramblers. Edition of 1000 copies in card digi pack, with UV gloss artwork.

Be the first to review this record. Best reviewer each month gets £10 off their next order!