Steven Broderick - Blue

This is quite sweet. Minimal stalwart Peter Broderick has discovered that his father Steven recorded a song back in 1979, and having listened and decided it's a gem, Peter has had it restored by his friend Nils and given it this beautifully packaged 7” release, with a distractingly sentimental blurb which opens, “We only knew Pop's singing voice as a whistle”. There's a beautiful photo of Steven that must've been taken around the time the recordings were made, too, as he's quite a young-looking lumberjack who can't be much older than Peter is now. The actual song is quite a lovely thing, with Broderick Snr's voice and guitar swathed with a film of reverb which actually makes it sound pretty modern, what with this current crop of '60s-influenced bands who compulsively reverb over the cracks in their shambolic delivery...or are just into that aesthetic. Who am I to judge? On this occasion, as the sleeve notes observe, the reverb is probably more a result of shyness than lack of competence. Either way, it's certainly not short of sincerity. On the flip, since the A side exhausts all the vocal-led material at the Brodericks' disposal, we're treated to an instrumental fingerpicked guitar number, once again dripping with reverb. Turns out Poppa Brodders was pretty deft with his fingers and his playing style has a lot of character, making this little meditation my preferred side of the record. Both sides are pleasant and unchallenging listens, though, and if you've an interest in Broderick Jr's work already then this is likeable enough to be more than just a peripheral curio.