Charlie Tipper Experiment - Mellow On

  by Erick Mertz

published: 25 / 8 / 2015

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Review

Some voices, when I hear them again, I realize I just missed. Tim Rippington's is one of them. After gobbling up his Forest Giants records, now more than a decade old, and his previous efforts as a Beatnik Filmstar (the UK Guided By Voices, so called) I was hopelessly endeared to his soft, melodic Dean Wareham vocal renderings of glittering power pop. Now Tim is back, new band, new record but so much of the same sumptuousness that makes him a standard on my playlist. The Charlie Tipper Experiment is a gathering of his fellow Bristolians, highlighted by fellow former Filmstar Jon Kent on guitar and bassist Geoff Gordon. Their first record together captivates on so many of the familiar levels. Armed with fuzzy, Gaussian instrumental production, a la the Jesus and Mary Chain the four-piece sizzles on tracks like 'Come On Down (Siren’s Call' and 'Shine Like a Star'. They tease with smart lyrics of misfit adolescent intellectualism on 'The Boys from Frampton Cotterall'. What would a nugget of Brit pop be without the requisite melodrama? 'Mellow On' is rife with sombre moments, and 'Something Worth Fighting For' and 'I’ll Take You With Me' especially have those delightful, dark day turns. One of the key aspects in considering 'Mellow On' is its grassroots production history. The songs were written in just a couple of weeks in the fall of 2013, recorded the following year on a skinflint budget. Various parts were captured in the band member’s homes; the drums and organs were the only proper studio recordings, and even those were culled secretively in the small hours. Even without knowing this history, the Charlie Tipper Experiment feels like a surreptitious time capsule, an assortment of periodic shoegaze gems that couldn’t be pulled off by any old blokes. It took these blokes, and thank god.

Track Listing:-

1 Something Worth Fighting For
2 The Boys from Frampton Cott
3 You Won't Be Going Home To
4 I'll Take You With Me
5 Shine Like a Star
6 Wherever You Go I Go
7 Hypnotise
8 Help You
9 Come On Down (The Sirens' C
10 Rock and Roll Dreaming

Band Links:-

https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Cha

Label Links:-

http://www.breakingdownrecordings.com/