“Jesus this is good. There’s your nutshell review right there.”
“Jesus this is good. There’s your nutshell review right there.”
Every now and then something arrives in the Incendiary shed that just blows me sideways. Lach’s The Calm Before has just done that. He sounds like Bob Dylan used to when he had a bee in his bonnet (only not as whiny) and is every bit as entertaining as that suggests. What I love about this is that there’s obviously an ego of IMMENSE size at work here. “This ain’t a song, it’s my life!” he sings at one point and that’s him only getting started. Let’s face it, you don’t come up with the kind of ridiculously overwrought shouting vocal parts of Oh Well if you aren’t completely in love with yourself as a musician. Self importance oozes out of this record and I absolutely adore it. Of course it helps that its produced by a guy from Pere Ubu and the drums (on most of the album) are having their skins whacked by a guy that used to be in Television no less, but there’s only one real star at work here.
Apparently Lach’s a bit of a staple on the NY club scene. He’s been running a famous open mic show for the past couple of decades at a place called The Fort or The Sidewalk, depending on what web site you read, but seems as I live in the Flat Lands that’s of no bloody use to me is it? I’ll tell you this though, I’m desperate to go. If there’s a place in the world where somebody with this kind of talent plays for next to nothing on a weekly basis, I want to be a regular. As it is, I’ll just have to settle for having this little gem of an album in my house.
Jesus this is good. There’s your nutshell review right there. Stick it on a poster, you can quote me if you like.
I want move to New York.
Words: Damian Leslie