Solarflares - Can't Get You Out Of My Mind

  by Denzil Watson

published: 17 / 12 / 2001

---

Review

The Solarflares release their debut single on Twist records and it was certainly worth waiting for. Will it get any reviews in NME or Melody Maker? Probably not. Will it make the top ten? Definitely not. What it will do, however, is warm the cockles of those people who have appreciated the music of the Prisoners, the Prime Movers and the Solarflares over the last 15 or so years. Lead track "Can't Get You Out of My Mind" is a beautiful pastiche of late sixties psychedelia with its stop/start rhythm driven along forcefully by vocalist and guitarist Graeme Day's power chords. It reaches a peak melodically with the name-checking chorus line and then bubbles over into a nifty exhibition of Day's lead guitar work. It is arguably the strongest song Day has penned since the heady days of the Prisoners and if this is a taste of what is to come from the second long player in early October I'm already frothing at the mouth. Recorded in mono, it has a real authentic feel and clocking in at just over three minutes it should be what the radio is crying out for. "Lunar Girl" continues Day's long tradition of penning classic instrumental tracks. A cross between Mission Impossible and those wonderful Barry Gray theme tunes (UFO, Joe 90 et al), the moog synth lines and sci-fi guitar licks interweaving with bassist Allan Crockford's stabbing bass guitar line. Who needs words when you can carry the melody with the guitar this well? The first thing you want to do when the track is finished ist put it straight back on again. Moving up a decade to the late 1970's for track three, the punchy "Inside of a Dream", this little gem owes more to punk rock rather than the 60's, especially with its tremeloed Buzzcocksesque chorus line. With drummer Wolf Howard battering his drums into submission and Day and Crockford propelling the song along it's hardly B-side fare. But since when have Day et al resorted to putting filler tracks on the flip side? And so there you have it. Encapsulated on one CD single the essence of what the Solarflares are all about - sixties garage and psych with the energy of 70' punk. And while some may accuse the Flares of retro, if being modern involves the soul-less dance scene.... sorry I'm staying in the garage (and that's the old definition!). For anyone wanting more information about any of the bands mentioned in this review, Denzil runs a Prisoners website which can be found at http://www.geocities.com/revengeofthecybermen

Track Listing:-

1 Can't Get You Out Of My Mind
2 Lunar Girl
3 Inside Of A Dream