Don Cavalli: Cryland

I frequently take a punt on an artist or album I’ve never heard off and this inevitably leads to a few misses, however those misses are more than compensated for when you get a hit like this. This album is a real gem, quite unexpected and it struck a chord with me on the very first listen. The opening track, “Gloom Uprising” has a sort of Ennio Morricone feel to it, but updated to suit a Tarrantino soundtrack rather than a Leone one. “I’m going to a River” continues with a pulsating guitar and “Aggression” adds a vocal reminiscent of Moby’s cover of “Run On”. “Here Sat I” adds some funk to classical blues lyrics. “New Hollywood Babylon” supplies a bizarre diversion with a surreal and upbeat guitar refrain but two of my favourite tracks have to be “Wonder Chairman” and “Casual Worker”, both of which have a great Cream styled late 60’s British Blues sound. This is definitely an artist who deserves a higher profile, I couldn’t find a wiki entry for him and I had to manually add the album art to my library as iTunes was unable to find it.