Novocastrian Mystery Tour

The more observant among you might recall my recent nervous disposition at the lack of NEW! and EXCITING! music I’d been coming across lately, that was happily assuaged by Teeth Mountain and their regimented lunacy. The truly intuitive among you might have picked up the undertone of desperation that showed through the cracks in my cheery demeanour – for I will only be satisfied for so long.

How pleasing for all involved then, that mere hours after that post went up the Guessmen should appear with a claim that they were just what was needed to help me make it though the cold, cold nights. ‘Very bold’ thought I, with the merest hint of colour rising to my cheek.

Now, I’m always happy when people get in touch to suggest we might want to feature their music - it’s the best thing about this entire malarkey probably - but alas it doesn’t always work out as we might hope. In our youth we might have been a little less choosey, a little more free with our affections, but experience has shown us it’s not always so simple, and so we pick our targets a little more carefully these days. Well, most of us anyway.

So – my blush of anticipation was tempered with the trepidation of past disappointment as I looked them up to see exactly what is was that they were offering - as it turns out, pretty much everything.

Their myspace has some full tracks from new album Back From The Bins, which they were kind enough to send me a copy of - at first, you might presume they’re a bunch of Beefheart-inspired-blues-filth-synth merchants, due to the bellowing fuzz of lead track Animal Man Robot and second track Troglodyte.



Guessmen - Troglodyte


Once into the album though, about halfway through they start veering all over the place - Warning and it’s building, almost Aphexish ambient-twitch signals the start of a free for all.



Guessmen - Warning


A couple of nicely messy interludes could have probably progressed beyond their 90 seconds - but when they do push one a bit further, on future single Black Balloons, it gets scrubbed clean by a shiny 4:4 beat, and it loses a bit of it’s original intent. Towards the end, a couple of slower songs wander into view, one of which keeps making me thinking of a Faithless track, leaving me feeling a bit soiled.

For me, it’s when they bring on the dirt and noise and do something unexpected that they’re at their best, and fortunately that’s the random ground where most of the album sits.



Guessmen - Under Rocks & Stones


They play in their homeland of Newcastle a fair bit (at The Cumberland Arms on the 20th of January and Newcastle University on the 9th of February), but for those of you elsewhere who want to be taken on the Guessmen mystery tour, you can pick up Back From The Bins from here when it comes out on the 28th of January.


Tiny Dancer


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