Stereo Naked. Upside Down.

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This entertaining and, at times, beguiling, bluegrass duo unveiled Upside Down, their latest album, at a celebrated Celtic Connections show back in January. That’s been more than enough time for this reviewer to get to know the album so here’s our thoughts on what is, in essence, quite a delightful listen.

Composed of Julia Zech on banjo and vocals and Pierce Black, double bass and vocals, the pair are joined by another duo, Rain Of Animals’ Pepita Emmerichs and Theodore Barnard (both bands have shared the stage on their recent tours) who add their voices, mandolin, violin and guitar to the overall mix.

We mentioned bluegrass earlier and it was via the bluegrass scene in Cologne (yes, there’s a bluegrass scene in Cologne) that Zech and Pierce met (she’s a native Cologner and he’s from New Zealand – a situation reflected in the album’s antipodean title) but the band are not so much your back porch exponents, fitting more neatly in a “newgrass” style while their lyrics can be whimsical, quizzical or just downright strange. This is best exemplified on Concrete Mountain, an odd conjunction of jazzy guitar notes, pizzicato fiddles and massed voices which seems to be a nod to ecological awareness but which also contains a lyrical reference to the Circle Jerks song When The Shit Hits The Fan which featured on the Repo Man soundtrack.

They open with a much airier number, Labour Of Love with Black’s pulsating bass prominent until Emmerichs’ fiddle appears. The harmonies are spot on as the song soars to its end. More down home is Square One as the fiddle and banjo saw away while Blue Light Antics is the most traditional sounding number as Black delivers this fleet footed tale of getting pulled over by the law. Zech takes lead vocals on Old Flame, a portrait of a doomed relationship although, later on, she’s also the lead on the wonderfully bustling Hold On To Your Love which is a tad more optimistic while allowing the band the best opportunity to flex their musical muscles on a brief instrumental break which is quite thrilling.

The album ends on a high note with Sun And Moon, a farewell song of sorts, an Auf Wierdersehen to be precise. As it huffs and wheezes its way one is reminded of The Incredible String Band as Black and Zech join together on a song which celebrates togetherness no matter how long we are parted. They may be idiosyncratic but Stereo Naked deliver some wonderful moments on the songs here.

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Stereo Naked. Unseen Course. Independent

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Released at the tail end of last year, Unseen Course kind of got lost amidst the host of Christmas releases and end of year lists which tend to dominate December. Of course, it’s now the tail end of February and we are only now getting down to writing about it and for that we offer our apologies as it’s an album which has been a keen listen recently.

Stereo Naked are a Cologne based band with a flexible line up arranged around core members, Julia Zech (late of Fierce Flowers) and Pierce Black. They play a modern hybrid of bluegrass, country and folk with Zech on banjo with Black on double bass while they share vocals and harmonise quite wonderfully. This is immediately apparent on the almost acapella opening song Dive Right In where the voices dominate on a soulful, almost gospel like finger popping arrangement. It’s the most pared back number on the disc as the remainder finds the pair’s playing embellished with guitar, pedal steel, percussion, strings and horns allowing for a full band sound.

While the banjo driven numbers, Would You and Love Song Nr. 3 certainly can be considered as a form of bluegrass, much of the album heads into into different territory with a contemporary mix of quirky upbeat numbers such as Sanity (“Let’s dance like chickens with our heads cut off,”) and mellower, almost jazz like, ballads. On Old Solo, they turn in a chilling seaborne folk song which creaks and wheezes with authenticity in a manner reminiscent of Anna & Elizabeth. They also have great fun on the closing song, Take The Money And Run. It’s a cowboy ballad given a full cartoon like makeover and a cinch for inclusion on the soundtrack if the Coen Brothers ever decide to film another ironic Western movie. Overall, Unseen Course is a delightful album, airy for the most part with Black’s supple and inventive double bass playing ensuring the songs don’t float away into the ether.

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