Balky Mule
(FatCat)
Robert Wyatt was forced to turn his back on a full-bore prog rock sound by an accident that took away the use of legs, releasing album upon album of dreamy folk-pop. Sam Jones, on the other hand, seems willing to take a similar changing of course of his own volition. Instead of continuing on as a drone/psych guitar master for groups like Third Eye Foundation and Flying Saucer Attack, Jones retreated to the bedroom, with nothing more than a laptop, an acoustic guitar and a head full of clanging, lo-fi pop songs as his companions.
The results - recorded under the charming, apropos name, The Balky Mule - are similar to Wyatt in both vocal timbre and laid back vibe. But Jones has cooked up his own singularly winning album, spinning stream of consciousness tales using a charmingly low key vocal approach and percussion that pings and rattles like a rhythmically inclined pachinko machine.
Some songs - such as the warbling "Paper Crane" and the child's version of Cabaret Voltaire that makes up "illuminated Numbers" - find Jones letting his electronic whimsy take control. It provides a modernist counterpart to his laid back attempts at folk pop that crop up on tracks like the plaintive closer "Tell Me Something Sweet" (which has Jones asking of his lover "tell me something sweet/so I can go to sleep") and the woozy "Chalk".
Standout tracks: "Range", "A Moth Like A Woodchip" ROBERT HAM
