Brainiac 5 - Back to Shore

by Kimberly Bright

published: 26 / 3 / 2019

Label: Reckless Records
Format: CD

Eclectic new thematic album from Cornwall’s Brainiac 5 is filled with literary psych-prog rock and jam band exploration

Review

'Back to Shore' continues The Brainiac 5’s rush of prolific creativity since their reunion just a few years ago. The concept surrounds a leftover loop from the sessions for their previous album, 2017’s 'We’re Ready!' This loop was copied and sent around to various friends, ex-band members, colleagues, and even a London acquaintance of bassist Woody’s who had never heard the band’s music (Oli Arlotto). With a long history in psych-folk and post-punk circles in Cornwall and London and in between since the early ‘70s festival circuit, there was no shortage of friends to call on to collaborate. With a brief but still suitably vague musical mandate, the extended band family jammed, noodled, sang, recited, and in one case toasted over the track long-distance. The result is four solid, literary Brainiac 5 tracks bookending the heart of the album: an interesting freewheeling suite of four songs revolving around the circular and somewhat repetitive two-chord “Back to Shore” loop (“I had to paint one canvas more/To find the way, find the way back to shore” and “Release the lambs/Refuse the hams/Release the gate/Release the gate”). This concept may seem at first glance like it would be quite monotonous after a while, but the lush variation of instruments and arrangements really do hold one’s attention: jew’s harps, penny whistles, and Highland bagpipes (played by Dave “Bagpipes” Brooks, of the comedy troupe The Greatest Show on Legs). There are lines of poetry from e.e. cummings and Rebecca Clarke ('The Seal Man'), as well as a quote from T.S. Eliot on the inside CD cover. The surprising reggae contribution of Oxman is one of the best moments on the album. Guitarist Richard ‘Wild Man’ Booth, saxophonist Oli Arlotto, original Brainiac and Truro council member Bert Biscoe, and Cornish folk scene legend Chrissy Quayle are also superb. Chrissy was nicknamed the Mermaid of Zennor by her father, referencing a local tale about a mermaid who falls in love with a human man she hears singing in church. That may account for the sound of church bells as well as sea birds on one track. She also ran the Mermaid Folk Club in a barn adjoining Gurnard’s Head Hotel in Zennor in the late ‘60s. Singer, guitarist, and composer Charlie Taylor’s sometimes urgent vocals and the jazz/world beat parts of the album are happy reminders of the experimental freak folk scene and the later post-punk days when bands looked to many other global musical styles for inspiration. Brainiac 5 have had a monthly residency at The Gunners (205 Blackstock Road) in London for the past three years. They will play a special album lauch there on April 5th.