Alvarius B - Baroque Primitiva

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5...according to our Ant on Thu 12 May, 2011.

Alvarius B is Alan Bishop from the Sun City Girls and he's been knocking around doing stuff for donkeys years now. Baroque Primitiva is his 6th album which came out on Poon Village on vinyl a while back but sold out mega quick and here's a deluxe CD reissue packaged in a hardback sleeve with a 32 page book. The cover features loads of ladies in a circle with their minges out and the booklet features even more minge shots and I think there's possibly some side boob for the pervs amongst you. Filth aside (and I'm sure there's a genuine reason for this vast parade of flesh) this album is very easy to get to grips with. You'd think it'd be hard going it being a SCG project and they're not always the easiest of listens but the songs are mainly done in a stripped back 'man and guitar' style with the odd bit of percussion. There's a strangely enjoyable cover of You Only Live Twice on there which bizarrely works as does the cover of God Only Knows. The songs are recorded in a part lofi/ part hifi way which leaves them polished yet fuzzy. I'm enjoying that aspect tremendously. Overall it's the songs that win here and I can see why it's been treated with such lavish attention. Lovely!

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The first full-length solo record in six years by Sun City Girls' Alan Bishop. • Packaged in a deluxe 32-page hardcover CD casebook of erotic art based on the LP cover photo. • Baroque Primitiva is Alvarius B.'s most accessible full-length to date and one of the most highly sought-after records in the Sun City Girls universe. • Abduction's voluptuous CD presentation of the Poon Village LP that sold out immediately upon release finally makes this music available to the folk. "A much-needed CD issue of an LP, released this last February in microquantities. The dastardly minds behind this project, a first spurt from the reactivated Poon Village label, have collaborated on the new package as well. And it is a deluxe eye-swim through various forms of feminine beauty, its 32-page booklet displaying images that look as though they were found in a smoky catacomb carved into the hills of Charlestown. By my count, Baroque Primitiva is the sixth album by Alvarius B. and is, like its predecessors, a deep dive through mysterious waters. The 11 tracks here were recorded at various sessions over the course of several years and range from 'Humor Police' (a track imagining what Syd Barrett might have sounded like had he been a devotee of Rembetika) to a trippily Beatlesdamaged version of 'You Only Live Twice' (the sole surviving shard of the aborted Alvarius B. Plays The Bond Songbook project). Baroque Primitiva is the first longformat telegram from Alvarius B. since he lost his mothership (the Sun City Girls, with whom he employed his slave name, Alan Bishop) and it also feels like his most consistently non-acerbic -- perhaps even most beauty-oriented -- work. The songs often have a meditative pace, filled with gorgeous lo-fi blends of vocals, guitar, bass and keys. Eyvind Kang guests on several tracks, but the bulk of the material was broadcast direct from the naked soul of Alvarius B., which turns out to be a warmer, sweeter place than you might imagine. And while this CD will be available for a tad longer than the 30 seconds the LP lasted, a set as thoroughly gorgeous as this will not linger. Take a deep breath of its magic and go for it. Why deny yourself such bountiful pleasures?" --Byron Coley ...

Tracklisting:

1. The Dinner Party
2. Mussolini's Exit
3. Humor Police
4. You Only Live Twice
5. Face To Face With A Couple Axes
6. Well Known Stranger
7. Naturally Absolute

Greedo said:

i totally agree on this review... not seen the CD book yet though...!

So, what do you think? Best reviewer each month gets £10 off their next order!