Reviewed by Jonathan Day

Hot on the heels of the Geoff Mann/Marc Catley retro­spective 'Fine Difference' comes this brand new Geoff Mann solo album. Despite the usual awful pun title, it's an immediately striking object, coming with a no less than sixteen page insert, full of striking mono­chrome cartoons and drawings, illustrating the hand written lyrics. I found the booklet genuinely added to the listening experience, creating a visual space for the music. The latter is a hotch potch (or should that be hot pot?) of styles ranging from acoustic guitar and vocal songs "Homeless", "Apathetic + Here, I ..." (Is our typesetter going gaga again? Ed) typically Mann instrumental; "Sight Sea", "Options + Opinions", through to pieces and music concrete pieces combin­ing instruments, voices and found sounds (car engines, pneumatic drills and all sorts of weirdness). There is even a 'telethon' version of an experimental song, including bad impressions of celebrities and, of course, awful puns. I think it was meant to be funny, but for me it supplied the albums low point. The songs are by turns poetic, gentle, abrasive, strange, intrigu­ing, challenging, pompous and irritating. They are never trite, predictable or formularized. An album of glorious moments and intelligent strangeness. A heartfelt thank you to everyone involved in this album given the appalling state of investment in British Chris­tian music (this album is on a Dutch label!) its a marvel that an album as uncompromisingly individual as this one got made

The opinions expressed in this article are not necessarily those held by Cross Rhythms. Any expressed views were accurate at the time of publishing but may or may not reflect the views of the individuals concerned at a later date.

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