neu-mann
Lo-fi interstellar guitar meditations with a surplus of vibrato giving the music an attractive back-country resonance. I refuse to believe Bobby Lee is English: he sounds like a reincarnated early '70s Kosmische Kurier enjoying a West Texas vacation.
Favorite track: Hevvy Friendz.
""Worn-denim instrumental psych country." Raven Sings The Blues
Recorded to ¼” tape, Shakedown In Slabtown is a sunscorched ramble through widescreen guitar instrumentalism, down-home gospel, Kosmische repetition and swampy country choogle with the hiss left in.
Bobby is joined by Guy Whittaker (Sharron Kraus, Jim Ghedi, Big Eyes) on drums and percussion, Mark Armstrong on electric bass and keys plus a primitive drum machine groove last heard on Suicide's debut or JJ Cale’s early records.
Owing as much to The Durutti Column as Ry Cooder, the album takes in stripped back traditionals, fuzzed out folk funk, Hired Hand-style acoustic vignettes and wide eyed rural rock. In the grand power-trio tradition, the album closes with a live rave up; an 11min+ elongated deconstruction of Warren Zevon’s Join Me in LA, equal parts Dr John’s Gris Gris, E2E4 and CCR vamp.
“A word of mouth sensation amongst discerning heads” Mojo Magazine editor John Mulvey
“Overdriven drum machine low slung choogle” Mojo Magazine
“The further Bobby and his band unmoor themselves from songs and head towards long-form abstraction, the more engrossing it becomes.” 7/10 Uncut Magazine
**** Shindig Magazine
“Perfectly primitive drum machines, shimmering guitars, laid-back-but-still-intense interplay, fried desert boogie … the good shit.” Doom & Gloom From The Tomb
“Psychedelic hues magnified by the immensity of the great outdoors, a timeless place where lonesome cowboy Bobby Lee will start his life-changing wanderings.” Moof Magazine
“Worn denim instrumental psych country …. Lee’s making his mark here, spinning classics into his own essence while crafting an album of personal mediations that spurn the impulse to sit still.” Raven Sings The Blues
“Take these instrumentals and write your own story on them, they will give you space and inspiration to do so.” Americana UK
Support from Shindig Magazine, The Avant Ghetto, Night Folk, TSPTR, Terrascopaedia.
credits
released August 17, 2020
Bobby Lee - Electric Guitar, Acoustic Guitar, Harmonica, Drum Machine
Mark Armstrong - Bass Guitars, Keys, Post Production
Guy Whittaker - Drums, Percussion
Ric Booth - Fiddle on How Can A Poor Man Stand Such Times and Live?
Brian Ellis - Percussion
Engineered and Mixed on 1/4" Tape by Brian Ellis at Portland Works, Sheffield, Summer 2019.
Bobby Lee trades in a wide screen brand of cosmic country-folk, full of space and pawn shop guitars. There are touches of JJ
Cale's analogue Americana, the swampy groove of Tony Joe White and Richard Thompson's sinewy, modal guitar work. Amps hum in the warm afternoon sun, kids and dogs snooze on the grass and broken drum machines keep time with the universe…...more
Killer brit-folk which sounds like its straight outta Les Cousins C.1970. Super tasteful guitar work and groovy production. Pure pink rim Island rarity vibes. Bobby Lee
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