The SQUIRE OF SOMERTON: Transverberations CD promo. Check samples

Description

Jimi Hendrix is well and truly alive! Well, not quite, but The Squire Of Somerton, namely Toby Jenkins, demonstrates that proper rocknroll music is well and truly alive. As he declares on exergue of the press release: The god of my everything is rock. Far from the formulaic and mindless punk-core championed by most of todays teenage angst-ridden bands, Jenkins weaves an ingenious and delicate soundtrack.
Transverberations is a far cry from the voluptuous folk/electronic soundscapes of Fort Lauderdale, the duo Jenkins formed with Steve Webster in the late nineties. Born in Bristol, where he spent if formative years, he got his first guitar when he was just 12, before turning to piano some years later, eventually combining his classical roots with more modern sounds in Fort Lauderdale, intentionally bringing together the distinction of Satie, the experimentalism of Roxy Music and the dilettantism of contemporary electronica in a fireworks of sounds and emotions.
Shaping epic circumvolutions of sulphurous beauty, Jenkins presents with Transverberations a breathtaking celebration of the guitar. As he takes his songs through electrically charged territories, he deploys an arsenal of sonic tricks to support his lyrics, ranging from the bucolic and innocent The Loved Ones or The Creeping Funk to the ironic and sarcastic The Feminist Agenda or Hollywood Stud and the obsessive Would You Like Another Drink. At times indulging in delicacy, hanging acoustic lights in his summer sky (Out In The Morning Sun, Cuba), at others dropping incendiary bombs or funking up his enchanting soundscapes (Would You Like Another Drink?, Raw Custard, Lipstick In Your Car) Jenkins avoids all the pitfalls of the genre and continuously captivates the mind by changing direction in the most insolent fashion, following the same psychedelic patterns developed by the likes of the Beatles or, later on, Hendrix, no less. But there is not impertinent pretentious statement or disrespectful appropriations here. Toby Jenkins simply enjoys every creative impulse and draws his own road in the sand.
Transverberations is a truly unique record in todays musical landscape, and a truly surprising, if not entirely unexpected, piece of work. In reflection, the last Fort Lauderdale album was fuelled by the same anachronic ingenuity, but, left to his own devices, Toby Jenkins lets his lingering mind loose and offers one of the most interesting, invigorating and astonishing records released this year.

13 Tracks. 55mins 04secs

Imagine if you will, a man who has managed somehow to escape from any music that has come out after about 1977.  This man is Toby Jenkins, AKA The Squire of Somerton. Transverberations is an excellent homage to psychedelia and above all, the guitar.  And underpinning the songs, which are typically somewhere between Nick Drake, the Beatles and Syd-era floyd, are carefully crafted electronics, guitar manipulations and programmed drums, which add a unique edge, and continue the tradition of the experimental nature of psychedelia.   

The thing that really grabs you straight away is the fact that the Squire plays guitar like some kind of evil genius.  On the opening title track, the solo manages to start off like the solo from Primal Scream’s “Movin’ on up”, the goes into a crazed bouncy graham coxon sort of thing, then into some clever filtering in a frippatronics kinda way, and finally settling on a ridiculous steve vai shredded solo.  The guitar playing on this album is truly remarkable, and not just in terms of soloing, but also in a intricate Nick Drake fashion. 

The first three tracks are nothing short of masterpieces.  “Transverberations” for its absurd guitar soloing, “Everything has to change” for it’s funky hendrixy grooves, a theme which continues with “Would you like another drink” as more hendrixy licks drive on these funky grooves.  “Would you like another drink” is probably my favourite track on the album, largely because of how ridiculous it is.  The lyrics are hilarious, there’s a Diamond Dogs-era Bowie vocal breakdown, some more great guitar work, and above all, the best guitar groove i’ve heard for a long time.  Within all these tracks the influences come thick and fast, beyond what i’ve mentioned already, Roxy music are clearly another reference point. 

The problem is, that after those first three tracks, the album settles down into a folksy dream, imagine Nick Drake on prozac.  The songs kind of lose their way a bit, and the album loses the impetus of the first three tracks. 

But the innovation and freshness of those three tracks makes this album well worth having.  It’s been a long time since anyone’s done anything like this, and in the face of this stripped down, faux-post-punk era we’ve entered with the strokes and the white stripes peddling some overwhelmingly uninspiring music, the Squire of Somerton provides a welcome break from the norm.