Review: Glowpeople - Playtime



My happiest memories normally involve music and music festivals (just to qualify that statement, I mean those wondrous times when like-minded people come together to celebrate music, comradeship and funny smelling cigarettes - NOT the corporate driven crap that passes for most festivals these days...as a denizen of Chelmsford I am tormented by the shitfest that is V everytime I leave the house on that weekend in August and, by christ, it is painful!). Long, hot summer evenings, sufficiently mellowed while Ozric Tentacles do their thang....them were the days. Anyway, there is a point to my Proustian meanderings...the Kozfest is a festival that happens every year down in the depths of the Devon countryside and still retains that atmosphere of yore (or so I have been reliably informed, yet to make it down myself, maybe this year?) The point is this album by Glowpeople that was recorded at the Kozfest in 2016. Glowpeople are "Psychedelic mutant fusion adventurers. Shropshire ∫ Tamworth ∫ Worcestershire ∫ Jupiter" and make the sort of music that is just about perfect for lazy evenings at a festival; psychedelic musings with some jazzy interludes and an inherent funkiness that I would say is pretty impossible to dislike (it is no coincidence that they played on the Daevid Allen Stage at the festival...Glowpeople share a certain psychedelic, jazzy playfulness as Allen's Gong).

The set is opened with 'Space Hammer', a driving spacerock number with more than a touch of krautrock. The metronomic drumming from sticksman Nick Raybould (sometime member of vert:x as well!) and the bass of Robot (?) Cossey keeping things tight for the echo laden guitar of Chris Hill and some wonderful spacey synth effects courtesy of Chris Corwell. 'Gorilla Salad' sees the spacerock take a backseat to something a bit more jazzy but with a seventies psychedelic feel to it while 'Tie Dye Sky', heralded by some voices in the ether, takes the jazz one step further with some trumpet courtesy of Chris Hill before he puts that down and sets to with some searing wah wah guitar that threatens to blow a hole in the speakers and then it all calms down again with some more hushed spoken word samples and that laid back jazzy groove. 'Medusa' is a enthralling mix of almost psytrance like effects with a chilled jazz background.....it's like a 'chill out' room from an early 00's club. 'Algebra' (taken from the last album 'Forever, Until' - also highly recommended) extends that post ambient dub motif...this is music for real heads...deep, dense and trippy..I felt a bit 'light headed' just listening to it with nothing stronger than a cuppa!. After some banter with the audience, urging all in a tie dye t-shirt to 'shimmy' together, the band launch into 'Tangy Fruit Shoot' which has the same inbuilt funkiness as a seventies film soundtrack....wah wah-a-go-go! Great stuff indeed and I defy anyone to listen to it without smiling and nodding their heads. 'Everywhere' has a distinct reggae vibe to it, the bass very dubby but things still retain a psychedelic edge. 'Distilled' seems to take everything from above and mixed it into one track.....some spacerock effects, hints of dub, a tinge of jazz and some psychedelic flourishes...it's like a Glowpeople showcase with every member afforded the space to show what they can do....and they all do it very well indeed! 'Metaphorical' is, as the introduction says, for the the 'psychedelically informed' and it is certainly the most 'out there' of the tracks and with a definite Gong feel about it, and we all love Gong right? It was about this time whilst listening that I decided that I was going to grow some dreads before I remembered nature had already taken that option away..bah! I love this track with it's slightly discordant jazz and psychedelic wanderings. 'The Saddest Flower In The Vase' opens with some ethereal synth drones, sounding very seventies Berlin at times, and grows into another spacey track full of dubby bass, clockwork drums and cosmic effects. 'With You Without' closes the set in fine style with some more of the trademark Glowpeople fusion driven cosmic goodness and even a nod to Gershwin's 'Summertime' for good measure.

I love this album for numerous reasons....firstly because it is made by guys who know their craft and obviously enjoy what they do; secondly it is a document of what was obviously a great gig at a great festival....but mainly because it harks back to a more innocent time; a time when music was made to be enjoyed, not fretted over and analysed to death...a time when music was not 'collected' but listened to and soundtracked a good time (I know that may sound hypocritical coming from a blogger who 'analyses' music...but hey ho!). I'm sure that there are some earnest music lovers out there for whom 'Playtime' is not 'serious' enough...but more fool them. It is a highly enjoyable foray into the world of jazzy, dubby psychedelia the likes of which pretty much ensures a good time had by all. 'Playtime' will be available from January 30th 2017 as a download via Cosmic Primitive.

Glowpeople 'Distilled' live at Kozfest 2016 from Nick Raybould on Vimeo.



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