Stone Premonitions 2010 - "The Clowning Achievement"
This is the best musical surprise I have had for a long time as the label that spawned The Rabbits Hat/Census of Hallucinations et al has finally adopted the name of the actual label realising what has always been the case - that Stone Premonitions is a true musical collective. Not only that but I believe Tim Jones, Terri B et al have produced one of their strongest albums ever. A major reason for this is the broader sound palette brought to the constant flow of ideas from Tim and Terri's fevered imagination by keyboard player Dave Hendry, adding a coloration, texture and ambience to the music. The opener 'Perpetual Motion' is instantly recognisable as a CoH song and immediately accepted as a classic one. Old songs like Tony Morland/Tim Jones' astute social commentary 'Out of Sight, Out of Mind' are brought up to date. This one with drums by Kevin Thompson (great guitar freakout at the end as well) as is 'The Judas Kiss' which is propelled onwards by Mark Dunn's reggae bass and some nifty programming with a welcome reappearance by the Reverend Rabbit, dreamy organ and gurgling synth and a fine vocal performance by Tim and Terri as well as some pretty funky guitar lines! There is a predominantly ominous edge though and you can cut the atmosphere with the proverbial guitar string. The thing I always love about SP music is that they really mean it and even when injected with humour, a legacy from bands like Gong in the seventies, the message comes across loud and clear. There is also room for sentimentality in the touching 'Down By The River'-Don Campau wrote the music to this one and a great melody it is. 'Infinite Potentialities' is a stunning 13 minute Dave Hendry synthesiser extravaganza that starts with bird song and opens like a flower on seven minutes with a synth pattern/ pulse that Tangerine Dream themselves would have been proud of with Tim Jones lending a helping hand on guitar. Next up is a Paddi/Jones song 'In The Image' with a venom in the lyric that as I said before gets straight to the point and you might say needs to. How's this for an opening gambit? "We're still in hock to the Lords of the Norman Conquest" then later "Follow the leader blindly to the theatres of hate". (Not bad, eh?) "Killing each other making money for the big, bad boss man", and variations thereon, makes up the chorus. No punches pulled then! The pertinent question 'Why Are We Here?' is asked before 'Give Us Back Our Heaven' (originally on CoH's 'The 4th Dimension' if memory serves) succumbs to an extended disco beat treatment, like one of those extended 12" mixes that were so popular in the 80s.
That's it then. 8 tracks over an hour of music that do exactly what it says in the press release. "poignant lyrics (that will also resonate with a lot of people at the moment), incomparable vocals, music that rocks, grooves and challenges the senses fusing elements of Progressive Rock, Psychedelia, Space Rock, Pop and other genres, music that is challenging yet accessible and ultimately defies categorisation'. A true fusion it certainly is. This is one album that I have been returning to on a regular basis and will continue to do so in the future.
(Phil Jackson for Zeitgeist)