The Crystalline Wisdom of Lord Cut-Glass

Label: Chemikal Underground Records
Artist: Lord Cut-Glass
Album: Lord Cut-Glass

It's been five years since The Delgados, and five years since Alun Woodward has made anything more than a squeak of musical noise. Or so we thought. It seems for much of that time Mr Woodward has been stewing upon his cauldron, casting lyrical spells such as "I'm hunting for the things that I love, fighting to make them a treasure for us" which couldn't sum up the sounds produced by Woodward as Lord Cut-Glass any better.

The name Lord Cut-Glass is from the cheeky radio play by Dylan Thomas Under Milk Wood: A fitting name for an act as equally cheeky as said play and writer. His self-titled album, released on 22nd June 2009, is one of the more enjoyable experiences likely to beget the listener in this time of over-produced mathematical drivel. The album's confusion is at once as unsophisticated and giddy as it is powerful and distracting. Nothing sits easy in this album; no sound, no beat, no melody is left alone to its own devices. They're all synced into one another, bouncing around like terse and acidic nursery rhymes. "Honestly you are not tempting, your days of charm were years ago" rings true in the opening track Even Jesus Couldn't Love You, which is for the most part the harshest track on the album, both in venom and condemnation for the subject matter, and in the smattering of abrasive noises that infiltrate every lead-in like a wasp laying dormant in a deckchair. This unsettling effect continues throughout the record, but in smaller, easier-to-swallow portions. The distraction, neither positive nor negative, certainly give this quirky folk outing a beaten taste, not primarily pleasing to the taste bud, but somehow as morish as cashews on an empty stomach in winter. In the next few tracks (names so assured of the tongue firmly placed in the cheek), Look After Your Wife, Holy Fuck! and I'm A Bad Example To The Dogs the sitar comes out to play, as well as all our favourite staples of the contemporary folk scene. In fairness to the overall product, it makes more than good sense here. Matter of fact, Holy Fuck! is less a Norwegian Wood rehash as it is an important development on the missile-like hard pop choruses of The Delgados. Sure, this song as well as many others on the album are pushing at the wrong side of crass and coy, but there's a development here that's real, altruistic (or maybe just Scottish). It's not just indie-folk when you've come from a background of sensationally sensible pop-rock and brought with you the inclinations of that movement. It's more. It's less benign than friendly-folk-to-make-you-smirk. Not to say that there's not a well turned verse and pomp of chorus to make one smile affectionately, perhaps even snigger inwardly. Monster Face and Be Careful what you Wish For serve as case and point on this issue. It feels like the soundtrack to a Molière duel. Even the string-polluted finisher Toot Toot has a residual pantomime demeanour about it. It stands to attention with a battered nonsensical chorus that can do no outward harm, yet smashes itself into a suicidal crescendo with the rage of battle. Chemikal Underground, partly set up by Woodward as part of The Delgados, seem to be in the business of ambitious records. The Delgados made strides to create something new out of a sound predominant in wayward clubs in the earliest part of this century. Lord Cut-Glass takes things a few steps further. Perhaps most impressively, this solo project has managed to create and occupy an image that's unmistakable, not unlike that of Belle & Sebastian's Stuart Murdoch's solo offering this Summer. Through all the nods to old time brass, the accordions, tuba, sitar, violins, violas and all the rest of it, there's a picture to be conjured. This album, a skew of military and stage-prancing folk, feels like a triumphant marching band with blatant disregard for pretension. Thus, it is a triumphant marching band. When all's said and done, take it back to one of the stand-out tracks in You Know. I dare you to take-in the sumptuous chorus again. Extracting it from your mind is as impossible as overthrowing the magisterial nature of this record. Lord-Cut Glass is ready and available for purchase. Do so.

Release date: 22nd June 09