your greedbagpress release - Yellow Bellied Wonderland
Oddfellows Casino is the latest incarnation of Brighton-based singer-songwriter David Bramwell, whose past exploits have included recording with cult producer Kramer for the Shimmy Disk / Koko-Pop label. Yellow-Bellied Wonderland is his first album with Pickled Egg, and proves to be a dreamy, exotic and intriguing debut. Packed to the hilt with to-die-for tunes, the album lurches from Hammond-drenched pop to haunting electronica, blaring horns, wispy flutes, Eastern-sounding string arrangements and stripped down acoustic piano songs.
Lyrically, Bramwell pays homage to his Northern roots, with tracks such as Road Movie and Hide Me, Joe exploring the wilderness of Lincolnshire and the North York Moors, while elsewhere there are tales of drunken evenings by the fire, the authors forlorn insomniac wanderings and some deliciously black humour in the tale of the Prune-Faced Man and His Fat Wife.
The songs sound like lonely lost ballads, all soft spoken strumming and high gentle vocals, like Robert Wyatt fronting Arco, the most subtle moments of early King Crimson, or America with a brain and a dark side. This is careful, articulate and eloquent low-key, soft-spoken pop of the highest order. Jazzy moments mix with folk and ambient chill, dub, and string quartets with antiquated keyboards, all delivered quietly: that great feeling of having enough time and nowhere to go while enjoying every minute. Driving just to go, arriving in time for sunset at the shoreline. [George Parsons, Dream Magazine]
Yellow Bellied Wonderland is a charming discovery. [Ian Fletcher, Comes With a Smile]
release:Yellow Bellied Wonderland
label: Pickled Egg Records