NEXTBESTWAY. newcastle mornings are fucking freezing during this time of the year. most days, the high-light for us is the arrival of a jolly delivery man wearing a fluro yellow shirt, records in hand. alastair galbraith kindly sent us 17 CDR's and we're slowly making our way through them (there is no other way). A.J. SHARMA's 'the road back' is the stand-out thus far: gorgeous steel-string acoustic driven pop songs that at first reminded me most of one of my favourite RICHARD YOUNGS songs: 'come hear us now'. minimalist, delicate and true...these tunes are playing over and over in my head and each time i discover another layer of beauty. NEXTBESTWAY releases are simply and beautifully packaged, again - minimalist in scope...alastair obviously wishes the listener to come to their own conclusions. maybe not the best choice of wording, but my friends are here and they are shitting me so i am finding it hard to concentrate. we have a show on tonight in the shop's courtyard and i have to go and pick up a p.a. and check my synthesiser to make sure that shaun didn't break that as well (tsk tsk) but i can't drag myself away from this album of gorgeous songs that could only have originated from the antipodes. y'all know what i mean? mr. SHARMA also recalls the sounds and delivery of JIMB CURRIN (we miss you mate), CAROLINER, SYD BARRETT, KEITH MASON and many other 'true' songwriters but he is definitely unique. you could easily cry into your beer or fruit juice while listening to 'the road back', but i know that i'll be crankin' this again later on tonight long after the amps are turned off in celebratory style and NO-ONE will question it's place in the room with the rest of us...whatever condition we find ourselves in. i am in love with this music, like i was in love with SEBADOH when i was fifteen and so very awkward, trying to speak with girls (now one lady) and failing miserably. hopefully my dreams will come true. in any case, i'll have this CDR to console and comfort me.
A.J. SHARMA lives somewhere in new zealand if you hadn't guessed (south island is my bet) and i know absolutely nothing about him. i don't need to. the music is all there is, just the way it should be.
No comments:
Post a Comment