Bevis Frond - White Numbers

by Andrew Carver

published: 8 / 6 / 2013

Label: Woronzow
Format: CD X2

Fabulous 1960's-influenced garage and experimental rock on latest double CD from the Bevis Frond, the project of British guitarist Nick Saloman

Review

Nick Saloman is one of those artists who has found his sound and feels no inclination to leave it. Like Greg Sage of the Wipers - one of his early inspirations, along with Jimi Hendrix - he’s mastered his own guitar sound, found his own distinct voice, and appears to be driven to release a constant succession of albums. Even when he sneaks a toe over the line (such as masquerading with beat group the Fred Bison Five, working with Mary Lou Lord or upping the distortion with biker rock combo Scorched Earth), the spirit of late 1960's rock speaks loud and clear. Although a seven-year gap in releases led some to wonder if he’d hung up the six-string, he returned with ‘The Leaving of London’ in 2011 and is now making up for lost time with double CD, ‘White Numbers’. Over 24 tracks you get the many flavours of the Bevis Frond beloved by his fans. It opens with some very Wipers-ish bass on rocker ‘Begone’, a tough-sounding number with a Frond fave subject, being told to get the hell out. The Byrdsy strumming of ‘Opthalmic Microdots’ offers up Saloman’s more mellow side, while the plaintive romantic emerges on the acoustic ‘She’s Just Like You’. The fuzzed out ‘Tree Line’ blisters with some Dinosaur Jr. style noise, while even more fuzz is served (and perhaps surfed up) on the regret-laden ‘Neverwas’. To make up for the abbreviated tunes on its predecessor (where the longest song, ‘Too Kind’ was a mere eight minutes and 38 seconds long), Saloman has tagged on the 42-minute monster ‘Homemade Traditional Electronic Jam’, a huge slice of studio warmup repurposed as a gargantuan closer. Fans of the Bevis Frond will be pleasantly unsurprised by both the high quality of the songcraft and playing (courtesy of regulars bassist Ade Shaw, drummer Dave Pearce and guitarist Paul Simmons). Those who haven’t encountered Saloman’s offspring might find two-hours plus a bit too much to digest, but in moderately-sized chunks it’s a great introduction to his oeuvre.

Track Listing:-

1 Begone
2 Opthalmic Microdots
3 The Garden Feature
4 She's Just Like You
5 Cruel World
6 Beautiful to Me
7 Tree Line
8 High Wind Crow
9 For Pat (On the Chaise Longue Dreaming)
10 This One
11 Neverwas
12 Alta
13 Major Crime
14 More Chalk
15 Dream It
16 White Numbers
17 The Hook
18 Dead Weight
19 I Crave You
20 Just Cause (Wins Wars)
21 The Likes of Us
22 It's Coming On
23 I'm the Only One
24 Homemade Traditional Electric Jam