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• On The Blink

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  REVIEW BY ANDREW YOUNG AT TERRASCOPE
  NATHAN HALL AND THE SINISTER LOCALS – ON THE BLINK
  
  (CD from Bandcamp )
  
  We do like a bit of Nathan here at Terrascope. This is his fourth Sinister Locals album since his debut in 2017 with Mute Effigies Soundtracks.
  
  This was originally to be his fifth album after the scheduled and nearly completed ‘Pointing Paw’ album had to be put on ice due to the restrictions of Covid 19. The song and title of the album ‘On The Blink’, were conceived before the current pandemic, but just seemed to be an ideal choice of title for obvious reasons.
  
  On The Blink is a double album, stretching to 22 songs. Nathan’s music is very much pop psych, with haiku like songs; throughout which various instruments frame lyrics of serpents, solar swans, bumbling bees, of country houses, modern day highwaymen, tin robots and orange elephants. The instrumentation is mainly acoustic guitar, organs, analogue synths, pianos and electric guitar with a whole host of others enriching his playful songs. He even had to learn how to play the bass guitar due to lock-down rules.
  
  Along the way we take in the skewed pop psych of ‘Serpent On The Path’. Reminiscences with the barking mad title track ‘On The Blink’, the humorous envisaging of ‘Stand And Deliver’, where all that could be proffered to an assailant these days would be a debit card! It is a cracking tune, with electric guitar rhythm and woozy mellotron to the fore.
  ‘When We Are No Longer Numb’, adds sitar and drones. There are linking pieces, Interludes and multi part songs such as ‘Solar Swans’, which sounds like a long lost children’s show theme tune, with music by Vernon Elliott.
  Songs about childhood continue with ‘The Signs’, with its multi tracked harmonies, accordions and synths, drifting down the river on a bed of hammered acoustic guitar notes. ‘Angels Understand’, is a multi part song which incorporates a spoken word section on park life and is pure fun.
  
  More pop psych abounds with ‘The Orange Elephant’, a highly melodic song, a dreaming of Albion. The percussion is quite light and used sparingly throughout the album and used to particularly fine effect on ‘Figure Of Fun’ a did me wrong song with acoustic guitar over which analogues synths bleep and pulse.
  
  ‘Insomnia’, playfully deals with lack of sleep to drifting organ and synth, dreamy psych from a man desperate to drop off into the land of nod. The Victoriana of ‘Spring Song’ takes us out into the country to the awakening flora and fauna. ‘Time Stables Its Horses’ unleashes strange forces, another mad melodic merry go round of a song. The album ends some 60 odd minutes later with another multi part song, the playful, organ infested strains of the near instrumental ‘The Sea Is In The Trees/The Sea Ignites The Stones’, a song which does indeed excite these weary bones.
  
  This is another terrific album from Nathan and is pure escapism for these troubled times.
  
  (Andrew Young)
  
  ZEITGEIST REVIEW
  In case you were wondering who Nathan Hall is, well he’s the frontman of well regarded psychedelic band the Soft Hearted Scientists. They’ve put out a bazillion releases of wizardly Welsh wibblings over the years and in his solo capacity Mr Hall is catching up fast.
  
  It’s a double album (in old money) with 22 songs although a few of those are brief musical interludes. Even then most of the songs hover between 3 and 4 minutes as he presents a series of songs which would have fitted nicely on a set of 7″ singles back in the day. To be honest it’s not a million miles away from his day job so anyone who enjoys the SHS will find themselves very much at home here. It’s very sixties influenced with a smattering of Canterbury, pre disco Bee Gees and sunshine pop. And it’s really good. Especially if you’re interested in bees, highwaymen, elephants (of the orange variety), nature, murmurings, drone, sleeplessness and more.
  
  A proper solo album, this was put together in three weeks as his next planned release was put on hold to the madness of the modern world. At times it’s very whimsical although there are moments of sadness woven in hither and thither. It’s definitely the kind of record you want so sit down and listen to as a whole. Preferably through headphones. Having said that I was particularly taken with ‘Serpent On The Path’, ‘Stand And Deliver’ and ‘The Signs’.
  
  I always sigh when folk reckon things like this aren’t mainstream. Yes, it’s not tinny pop designed to be heard through a phone in the back seat of the bus. But it’s dripping with melody and deserves a much bigger audience.
  
  Review by Kim Harten of Blissaquamarine
  NATHAN HALL & THE SINISTER LOCALS
  On the Blink CD/Download (The Hip Replacement)
  Nathan Hall & the Sinister Locals had to shelve their planned fourth album, Pointing Paw, due to Covid lockdown preventing bassist Mike from visiting Nathan's studio. Instead, Nathan taught himself bass and recorded this alternative fourth album on his own (aside from two tracks which Mike appears on, which I guess must have been recorded before lockdown began). The title On the Blink pre-dates the pandemic, but Nathan found it an appropriate name for an album recorded in the disastrous year that was 2020.
  
  The album is packed with joyous music that's a perfect way to escape during these troublesome times. There are jaunty psych-pop songs like Every Garden, with its lilting Mellotron and bouncy piano riffs, and Rabbit Rings which takes in thumping dance beats and kaleidoscopic synth whirrs alongside lyrics that raise an eyebrow at modern absurdities: "It's easier to modify a mountainside than half the fucked up habits of the modern mind". Sometimes the music veers into territories where the boundary between psych-pop and psych-folk is thin, such as When We Are No Longer Numb, which has qualities that are sure to appeal to fans of The Incredible String Band or the folkier side of Donovan.
  The Orange Elephant features a Spanish-tinged tune, ostentatious military drumming, and analogue synth sounds that conjure up images of shimmering stars, accompanying lyrics that see beauty and calm in the things people often miss: "Little things like bees can drive the fear out of me".
  
  The Wrong Song distills the Covid situation into just a few words, "Gone wrong... the world's gone wrong... such strange times", intoned mantra-like over a backdrop of minimal acoustic guitar and creaky sound effects, before giving way to a fuller arrangement with retro organ, pizzicato strings and whooshing cosmic synth. As well as the songs, the album has expressive instrumental interludes dotted throughout, from the dramatic piano piece Creepy Country House After Dark to the electronic chug of March of the Tin Robot to the vintage sci-fi music of Moon Crater Melody.
  
  Great stuff as always from Nathan Hall. Get the album at nathanhallandthesinisterlocals.bandcamp.com
  
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• Full Digital Discography

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  Get all 34 Nathan Hall and the Sinister Locals and Soft Hearted Scientists releases available on Bandcamp and save 80%.

  Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of Phantom of Canton Halloween Demoz E.P., Waltz of the Weekend, Night of the Gorgon E.P., Golden Fleece, California Time Machine E.P., The Kraken of Roath Park Lake, Stand and Deliver/Pointing Paw, Sasquatch!/Tarantula!, and 26 more. , and , .

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