Directorsound - Two Years Today

Our review
Customer reviews
Press release
Soundclips

4...according to our Brett on Wed 06 Oct, 2010.

This one starts off with the sound of a shoreline, bracing me for some sort of serious field recording/isolationist type effort, but then immediately cuts that shit down with some pure Hawaiian lap steel guitar and some jaunty bar room piano.. Interesting! Yeah, for the most part this record's comprised of a mixture of elements which might not at first seem to fit together naturally at all but somehow end up coming together to form a whole. There's a very whimsical, eccentric feel to the whole thing whether its blasting out some bombastic rhythms, lolling backwards and forwards in a melancholic waltz or getting all reflective in its more thoughtful moments and at no point could you accuse it of not being a pretty unique proposition. Phil reckons it's a big High Llamas-y but I don't think I ever paid attention to them when they were about so I can't personally vouch for his accuracy on that one!

To play these clips you need to either update your browser (Norman Records recommends Google Chrome) or update your Flash plugin.

Multi instrumentalist Nicholas Palmer has come along way since his critically acclaimed 2003 Geographic/Domino debut “Redemptive Strikes”. The 7 years that followed saw Palmer alternatively amass then disregard a wealth of recordings while retreating ever further into seclusion and his art. “Two Years Today” represents the fruits of these unheard yet prolific years, interwoven with the sounds of his native Dorset.

Ever the romantic melodist, opening track “Somewhen by the Sea” invites the listener into Palmer's typically whimsical musical world. Delicate piano and fluttering drums join the crashing waves of a Dorset beach before swerving off into a Hawaiian inflected, end of the pier jaunt. As the album moves up river towards the centrepiece recreation of an inebriated afternoon at an English country fair courtesy of “Before The March / Strawberries and Steam”, throughout, the upbeat often manic compositions belie a thread of melancholia that comes more to the fore on the antique Dulcitone led tracks, “Dreams of Donnybrook” and "Around Twilight". Typically though the album's climactic title track swaggers back, bright eyed with quixotic optimism.

At turns chaotic and yet somber, hopeful and resigned, ”Two Years Today” represents the very best moments from almost a decade of work from a truly iconic UK underground musician

Track list

1. Somewhen By The Sea / Balance The Balloon
2. Sirens In August / My Shaggy Parasol
/ When The Sun Sets Over The Yard Arm
3. Before The March / Strawberries
And Steam
4. They Came Alive
5. Some Eve With An Apple
6. Dreams Of Donnybrook
7. Two Years Today
8. Around Twilight

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