‘An absolute must,’ as Steve Barker writes in The Wire. ‘The main Attraction is the dubplate mixes of the Jah Shaka power play Jah No Parshall, here retitled Gates Of Zion. One astonishing dub mix features vocals from Prince Mohammed aka George Nooks in his early deejay guise. Chopped from the lyric and dropped into the chasmic dub mix, the phrase ‘heavy as lead’ would have made an apt title.’
What a great record. Soaring early-eighties soul from Bill Withers’ spar — original, loose-limbed and funky, full of emotional intelligence and good vibes. Includes Love’s Too Hot To Hide, two-step heaven.
‘Boomerangs back into the slashing chords and frenzied double-picking of the Harry Pussy years, tossing the gentler melodic glow of the last few solo records into the dustbin. In other words, this may be Orcutt’s most overtly punk-rockist record since Gerty Loves Pussy, his first solo electric LP from a decade ago. It’s an affirmation that Orcutt is above all a lead player—angular runs scaling the heavens, ricocheting back to ground zero before climbing again. Orcutt builds tension with short phrases, repeated with slight variability until it seems like they’ll never stop, finally slamming into a fresh line like the dawning valley at the crest of the mountain pass. Another Perfect Day is, ultimately, something of a solo guitar Nouveau Roman, an exhilarating run through melodic reiteration, impossible crescendos (check out those ecstatic crowd hoots on For the Drainers) breaking into—a moment rarely found on an Orcutt record—soft, whisper-quiet tracer notes at the end of A Natural Death. Another Perfect Day returns Orcutt to the immediacy of his earliest records while maintaining the melodic complexity, phrasing, and flow of a player, who’s been going, what—four-plus decades now? And when he taps his roots, it’s a reminder of exactly what was so exciting about Orcutt’s playing in the first place.’
The definitive recordings, using Noncarrow’s original instruments — two Ampico player pianos, one with metal-covered felt hammers and the other with leather strips on the hammers.
New recordings invoking the grand traditions of Turkish psych with passionate recastings of tripped-out surf, Cambodian rock, Saharan guitar, electric Thai; even a little Sun City Girls post-punk.