Get Well Soon "The Scarlet Beast O' Seven Heads"

 

If you read the post from a week ago, you learned of my loose parameters for keeping an entire record.  I stumbled onto this one-man band about two years ago and whittled down the double CD into a savable sixty minutes, just like the Psychedelic Pill.  This time around, even with extra content, the record clocks in around 72 minutes, but it wouldn't have mattered anyway...I would have kept it all no matter the length. 

 

If you bothered to click the link above, I'm sorry to rehash parts of that review, but some of my notes for "Scarlet Beast..." mention the same names; Bowie, Sylvian, Gane.  Then there is that "folk" designation again.  I heard a smidgen of it on this album, at one point dictating, "this could be a German Decemberists."  The hint would really be in the varied instrumentation represented on SBO'SH.  Here are the other names that welled up from the music wing of my cerebral catacombs while listening to this record over the past five weeks; Mark Almond, Edwyn Collins, Kraftwerk, Tangerine Dream, OMD, Yello, Double, Human League, David Byrne & Morrissey.  I saw one international reviewer label Get Well Soon as “the bastard child of Radiohead and Bright Eyes."  I can hear that.  A few of the other artists I saw mentioned in reviews included Pink Floyd, Depeche Mode, Prefab Sprout (!) and Triumvirat.  OK, I'll give them those, too.  I summed it all up as this, "70's-era cinematic, multi-genre, electronic, baroque folk."  You may have heard me giggle as I wrote that.  Here was another reviewer's synopsis: "all sorts of glorious nonsense set to lilting melodies and with spiralling choral or electronic backgrounds."  That works, too.

 

When I wrote "cinematic,"  I had no idea that the following video existed.  But first, let me point out the title of the album comes from the book of Revelations, so you religulous persons might be offended...

  

Now that, my friends, is what music video should be about.  With so much happening for your eyes, the music itself gets overshadowed.  Go back and play it again, but this time close your eyes or turn away from your screen.  One more spin and for days you'll sing, "Hold tight, get a grip, the whole world is going to Hell."

As I mentioned before, GWS is the brainchild of one 30-year-old multi-instrumentalist with a lot of time on his hands.  He'll flesh out the recording with a few extra humans and certainly he needs others to help when he does his little mini-tours or promo appearances.  Just to set the record straight, here I would normally embed an example which would be taken from the current album, but in this case, I could only find a live rendition of the same song from above...and it didn't do it justice.  So this is from the support tour for the debut album in 2008...



I know, the crowd shots weren't flattering.  In no way, shape or form is this music suitable for the outdoor festival circuit, especially in the daylight.  I could see it on one of the tented stages at Bonnaroo after sundown, though.  Ideally, it belongs in a concert hall.

Disc #2 of SBO'SH is only 18 minutes long and consists of five Lessons, all easily made in a home studio with a couple of synths.  The music and Deity-like electronic voice are straight out of the 70's.  Cat Steven's "Monad's Anthem" from "Numbers" is the song that popped into my head, similar with its spiritual overtones. 

I absolutely love this album but good luck trying to find it in the USA.  Only this week have I noticed the prices dropping on the imports, now $13 inclusive from the UK.  Pretty sure that's for the single disc version, and really, that's enough.  The album is too damn smart for 98% of Americans and it's a shame that only a fraction of the remaining 2% will hear it.  JK, you would love it, and maybe a loyal reader in San Diego, too.  Hope you obtain a copy...