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ARTHUR BROWN “Nature”
ARTHUR BROWN “Nature”
By Octopi Mills
BROWN has been in the game now a good 60 years so I don't feel like he really needs any sort of introduction. The word legend definitely is an understatement here and I have been fortunate to have done a few reviews of this man's work in the past. This album is "Nature" and comes out on Prophecy Productions. This album saw BROWN going closer to heart and home and capturing sounds of bubbling waters and field recordings instead of focusing on the often-sterile studio for his work here.
The first track has a good feel and defies genre and has the good old vocal sound that sounds like it's coming from another time. It is awe inspiring...."With a Tear" sounds strange, creaky, folky, and very much not like anything you have heard. Nearly in the same cosmos as something like CAPTAIN BEEFHEART but this doesn't do a guy like BROWN favors in saying as he is a man who walks his own weird yet insanely creative path. Bluesy, funky, rock and lots of other things. The dreamy synth keys that open the 3RD song are state of the art and it turns into a sermon from the poetic ARTHUR BROWN, taking on an electronic sound as he rants and rambles over the wash of machines, as if he is lecturing them. "Seven" has a similar architecture, though in a more mellow sense of calm.
"Bursting the Bubble" sounds like vintage British happy mirth, like something off an old TV show that mixes psychedelia, pop, garage pop, etc, as if the BEACH BOYS were eaten by a horse head nebula. The man's passion and vocal delivery is to be held in high regard. "Water on Stone" nearly forms as a ballad before turning into a science fair of carnival light. An element of the album is almost folk but has a cinematic sound that cloaks one in clouds and blue sky as one sails on a hot air balloon with dolphins bursting from the waters below on waves. "Open Hearts' is like something out of Roald Dahl or an old Dr.Who episode, with the narration of a genius. The man's music is color and light, star and fire....
The final track offers further narration as the ticking and tock of a clockwork ease melts over the ending...This has the feel of old British things when the country was full of words, songs, films and novel things whilst still being the old folk countryside of yore-when the olde and new married and everyone celebrated these things. There is not another man like ARTHUR BROWN. He will be going on tour it seems and I bet it will be a huge show. This album is highly recommended and obviously of the album of the year variety.
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