Cranium Pie – Rememberrr/ Mothership
Even the grunts at HFoS Towers – the ones who put this poor excuse for a website together on a weekly basis – deserve a holiday once in a while; hence the lack of activity for the past week.
Never fear, all is well, and what better way to return than with the final release from what, for many, will be the sorely missed Bracken Records. The label ran by Andy Bracken, one half of the team behind Fruits de Mer Records – and, incidentally, a very erudite interviewee, as witnessed here and here – is calling it a day.
What better way for the label to go out than to enlist the aid of FdM favourites Cranium Pie (their version of ‘Madman Running Through the Fields‘ is a particular highlight in the Fruits de Mer canon), whose blend of psychedelic progginess keeps the flag flying in 2010 and beyond.
Hailing from the city of Bath, the West Country home to cider-crunchers and the birthplace of the words “ablution” and “gullible”, Cranium Pie sport a sound that, if such a thing was possible, might easily raise the dead from the apathy to which they’ve become accustomed. With the sleeves of their wizard gowns caught firmly in the car door of 1970, the band capture the spirit of the post-psychedelic/proto-prog era with the two songs that make up this limited edition 7″ final offering.
‘Rememberrr’ is awash with intergalactic extrapolations and sounds invoked from the ether, driven on by superior keyboard noodling and occasional bursts of acid-rock guitar, torn from the fingers of Cranium Pie axeman Dano Herro. Occasionally reminiscent of Dark Side of the Moon, it’s safe to say that ‘Rememberrr’ provides a fitting farewell to the Bracken label, without slipping into the needless tedium of the aforementioned Floydian slip.
But wait. There’s more. As I said, there are two tracks on this short but sweet, shining jewel in the often overwhelming slurry that is rather disparagingly referred to, by me if nobody else, as “modern music”.
‘Mothership’ has a title pulled directly from the ethos of many a 70′s prog excursion and mixes meditative passages with gradually building explosions of grinding space rock. Its six minutes represent an otherworldly ecstasy rarely seen in the asinine age of X-Factor, BGT and N-fucking-Dubz.
With the likes of Circulus, The Chemistry Set, Vibravoid and a few more choice bands plying their trade in 2010, long may Cranium Pie reign. As for Bracken Records, may they rest in peace.
The 7″ limited edition vinyl (300 only) that marks the swansong of Bracken Records, is available to buy right here.
Don’t just read and applaud. Subscribe to the rather splendid RSS Feed
Recent Comments