sound of the suburbs

Martin Carr , remember him ? Of course you do . The boy who shared a barber with Malcolm McLaren ! Better known as the left of field song writing genius behind the Boo Radley . Well ever since the Boos spit Carr has gone under the banner of Brave Captain , releasing I believe six albums since 1999 . His latest is entitled 'Distractions' and is available free of charge , well almost you must sign up to his newsletter first , in high quality 256 kb mp3 . If you take the effort of reading what he has to say you will also discover his reasons for making 'distractions' a free disc .
It's been on my hard drive for a good few weeks now and although I know it won't be making it on to my end of the year essential list , it is definitely worth giving an ear to . Only eight songs long it licks of with a 60's hammond organ driven psychedelic dirge called 'whatever happened to the finger paint' . At least two of the tracks are reminiscent of 'Giant Steps' period Boo's , being heavily indebted to 60's pop and above all the omnipresent Brian Wilson Influence which of course did no harm to the High Llamas . Of particular note are the beautiful echo harmonies to be found on 'it's what we make it' . The album close on a surprising note with 'Jerusalem' a song featuring rapper Akira the Don that manages to mix UK rap and 60's pop without being shocking . As already said it's new , it's free and well worth your time .


On the subject of ex Boo Radleys , after a number of years outside of music , ex Boo Radleys front man and Martin Carrs old school chum , Sice makes a welcome return . At the tail end of last year after a chance meeting at a railway station he formed Paperlung , whose debut CD single 'the days that god sold you' will be available from Shifty Disco at the end of the month . For those of you in the UK check out their web site for live dates .