Straylings. Entertainment On Foreign Grounds.

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An energetic duo comprised of London born guitarist Oliver Drake and Bahraini/Austrian songwriter Dana Zeera Straylings conjure up a mess of sound that owes a lot to the likes of Mazzy Star and The Jesus and Mary Chain. Fuzzy amped up rockers with a hint of Lee Hazelwood and Phil Spector sit side by side with spectral ballads drenched in echo and reverb. We’ve already mentioned the opening song, Carver’s Kicks when it was released as a single at the beginning of the year. It’s a perfect opener for the album with Zeera’s soaring spooky vocals and Drake’s vibrant guitar set over a runaway rhythm section that kicks a plenty. There’s a cinematic sense of space and drama in this corker of a song but it almost pales by comparison with the widescreen epic that is The Saguaro. Stinging Morricone type guitar whiplashes the driving rhythm as Zeera’s multitracked voice wails and beseeches. This dramatic screenplay continues with Kings of the Mire which is ushered in with crashing guitar chords over a Spector drumbeat on a primal scream of a song. While these are the songs that immediately grab the listener’s attention Straylings show that they can downclutch with a brace of songs that are more delicate while maintaining the basic template. Bitter Face is laced with an acoustic strum although squalls of electricity also run through it while Marie & The Dusty Lands is a simple piano and voice piece that still manages to convey the same sense of menace and drama as the full blown band pieces. The closing song To Lay Down Roots is a slow burn with walls of shimmering guitar and buried violin that manages to rise above its immediate resemblance to a song by Leonard Cohen.

The musty psychedelic aroma that surrounds the songs on the album sets it up as a fine successor to several of the Paisley Underground bands and the only quibble is that listened to in one sitting there is a sense that the band need to add a touch more variety to their songs, however that may come in time. In the meanwhile this is at times an exhilarating listen and it’s recommended that you turn up the volume.

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Carver’s Kicks

Joshua

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Confronted by the anonymous spectral faces framed on the sleeve of this CD it was comforting to read that JǒŞhǔA is a side project of the great Joe Cassady and the West End Sound. Featuring Cassady himself and his superb guitar player Shu Nakamura we were ready for another dose of literate and wry observations delivered with aplomb in a country folk style as in last year’s The Chymical Vegas Wedding“ However the PR blurb stating they had “got a bit bored by what they were doing and did something else” should have alerted me. JǒŞhǔA don’t deliver hummable melodies or toe tapping tunes, instead they delve into the dark recesses of the soul with a piledriver percussive sound and distorted voices that reek of danger and doom. Think of Krautrock, Tom Waits, Johnny Dowd, Harry Partch, add in some Lee Hazelwood, Beat poetry, Tibetan bells and top it off with a dusting of Joujukan master musicians and you’re in the territory this pair inhabit. In fact they say it better themselves describing their influences as “garbage cans, screaming children, half-empty bottles, half-full bottles, deer antlers, tambourines, mortal flesh, pots, pans, vocal chords, squeaky chairs, sheets of paper, the words on the paper, bells, whistles, the whole bag of chips, etc.”
With such a smorgasbord of sounds it’s a tribute to the pair of them that the album is a bit of a triumph. See-sawing between spoken word poems accompanied by a jangled cacophony and more intimate and tender spooky ballads all is weird in here. In Thee O Lord which opens the album is a trance like invocation that recalls the opiate nightmares of William Burroughs, Unstarted Symphony is a whirling percussive dervish and Dear Words throbs like a heart beating to burst. By comparison Don’t Let them Hurt You sounds almost tender despite the surreal sci-fi imagery. It’s a genuine surprise to find a Christmas song towards the end of the album. Christmas Eve 2012 is jaunty with a faux country feel but listen to the lyrics and you soon release that you’re still in JǒŞhǔA land.

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In Thee O Lord

Straylings

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Not often we get asked to mention a Bahraini/Austrian/Londonian duo but stranger things have happened. Straylings are Dane Zeera (the Bahraini/Austrian half) and Guitarist Oliver Drake (from London indeed) and they have come up with a fine sound that harks back to the old Lee Hazelwood and Nancy Sinatra days with a scuzzy Mazzy Star feel. They’re playing London’s Barfly this Saturday 14th. No sign of any Scottish gigs so far but have a listen to the single, Carver’s Kicks and enjoy.

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Carver’s Kicks