Ashley Reaks - Before Koresh

by Lisa Torem

published: 21 / 5 / 2015

Label: Metal Postcard Records
Format: CD

intro

For his seventh album, London-based collage artist/guitarist/singer Ashley Reaks, with old and new friends, examines the seamy side of urban life through riveting story lines and a barrage of instruments

Ashley Reaks is originally from Harrogate, but is now a London-based collage artist whose penchant for experimentation has been critically acclaimed. His original arrangements have been inspired by pop, dub, spoken word, rock, psychedelia and folk genres. He plays many instruments, but his electric and acoustic guitar get more and more commanding at every turn. His inspirational art often serves as stand-alone pieces or as alluring album covers. Ashley uses his many skills to reveal his vivid imagination. His songs often lead his audiences to dark, comical or painfully sensitive places. If you stay the course and follow faithfully along his path, you’ll usually encounter a character with a perplexing criminal past or perhaps a lonely adolescent or elderly woman with a shameful secret. Often his songs become the subject of gripping, unique videos. You can count on some superb solos from his round robin of players and you can bet you’ll be entertained with cataclysmic, hairpin turns from track to track too. His recent seventh studio album ‘Before Koresh’ features Leonard Phillips, vocalist of the Dickies. He has brought back the delightful Norwegian singer Maria Jardardottir, whose haunting improvisational phrasings have graced many of his former works. ‘Before Koresh’ is also enhanced by lyricist Joe Hakim (Hull) and poet postman Kevin Boniface. What kinds of music does Ashley Reaks bring to mind? It’s hard to say as Ashley is truly original, but if pressed I would say he writes as sensitively as John Prine or Harry Chapin and that his exploratory, unorthodox themes recall Gang of Four’s political and biting satire or the Psychedelic Furs’ bittersweet dirges, like ‘Sister Europe’ with its sad, belligerent sax and mournful melody. Sometimes you’ll hear an acoustic song that approximates a Paul McCartney ballad, with tearful images and plaintive strumming. Something along the lines of a ‘Jenny Wren’… Now about ‘Before Koresh’. Check out the fuzzy, throbbing bass, loopy vocals, apocalyptic musings and Maria’s incandescent vocalising. The intense electric guitar solos illuminate the expression here, “psychological terrorist.” And Dave Kemp’s sax really ties it up. ‘The Dustman’ is based on a poem, where this fictional character is “crawling on the edge of Guttertown,” You’ll fall in love with this poetic, symphonic, fairy tale flourished arrangement. And lurking between the lines of the next ballad, ‘Wearside Jack’ is the dance-friendly song about Europe’s most feared serial killer. The pop backing vocals provide lots of irony. Kemp’s sax makes some eerie, strangling sounds. It is not for the faint of heart. The wordless ‘Gleaming Cinders’ features Maria Jardardottir’s aria-like performance, which is ethereal and intoxicating, erupting without apologies against a backdrop of windchiming percussion. ‘Crystal’ is a co-write between Reaks and poet Joe Hakim, who takes on the narrative. It’s a street savvy story about one woman’s descent into a druggy haze. Jarradotir’s outro is gorgeously tragic. Reaks and Hakim work really well together to get their points across. ‘Hyper-Diseasy’ is rife with angry word salad and playful sax. The poetry is first class and scatological. This is what would have happened if Shakespeare had read pulp before writing sonnets. Short but effective, ‘Mr. Barton and The Squirrels’ is another co write; this one is between Kevin Boniface and Ashley. Less is more. ‘Inch Perfect’ is a haunting instrumental. This wondrous arrangement recalls composers like Jack Nitzsche or other similar film wizards. Joe Hakim’s even-tempered voice on the amusing/surreal ‘I Want to Get A Celebrity Pregnant’ is brilliant. You’ll hang on every word, as your knuckles turn white. ‘Hell and Back Again’ is a turbulent free-for-all and the closer, where lots of dark and muted sounds, courting terraced levels of hysteria, trade off. I don’t know what Ashley Reaks has in mind after ‘Before Koresh,’ but he’s expressed the terror, the angst, the urban grit and every day beauty that fills our lives, with fearlessness and sonic suspense.

Track Listing:-

1 Before Koresh
2 The Dustman
3 Wearside Jack
4 Gleaming Cinders
5 Crystal
6 Hyper-Diseasy
7 Mr. Barton and the Squirrels
8 Inch Perfect
9 I Want to Get a Celebrity Pregnant
10 Hell and Back Again

Band Links:-

http://www.ashleyreaks.com/
https://twitter.com/ashleyreaks
http://ashleyreaks.bandcamp.com/
https://www.facebook.com/ashleyreaksart
https://ashleyreaks.bigcartel.com
https://www.youtube.com/user/ash231266

Label Links:-

https://metalpostcard.bandcamp.com/
https://www.facebook.com/MetalPostcardRecords
http://www.metalpostcard.com/
https://twitter.com/metalpostcard1

interviews

Interview (2023)

Harrogate multi-talent Ashley Reaks just released ‘Winter Crawls,’ which includes a host of well-known guests, superb imagery and one-off instrumental work. He updates Lisa Torem with the back stories.

Interview (2018)

Interview (2010)

Interview (2009)