For their 2023 second album, ‘Friends’, Ellett (guitar), Craig Kahn (drums) and Mark Cook (bass) brought in twenty-two guest musicians to recreate the feeling of hanging on the deck with their mates, having a jam. The result was thirteen instrumental tracks which were a delight, and this timer around they have totally switched it up by coming back into their core and Gayle Ellett (keyboards, electric & acoustic guitars, sitar guitar & soundscapes), Mark Cook (bass, 14-string Warr guitar & soundscapes) and Craig Kahn (drums) giving us a very different approach indeed.

This time around there are just four numbers, each more than ten minutes in length, which much more of a focus on Mellotron, Minimoog, Hammond organ and Rhodes piano. Here the guitars could be heavily distorted and fuzzed, creating a backdrop of noise, or they could be taking us off at a tangent which is direct and straight into the brain, or it could be nuances. It is psychedelic, it is dated, and it is delicious as one never knows what is going to come next. Gayle is currently in seven (only seven?) bands and has played on more than 130 albums and most people will think of him as being one of the guys in Djam Karet who have just celebrated their 40th anniversary and always throws himself headlong into whatever project he is working on. However, his background is hugely diverse and one never knows what is going to happen so the lead guitar may be distorted and yet it can suddenly switch into sitar which makes total music sense. That this album is called ‘The Painted River of Light’ is no mistake, as we are being taken on a fluid musical journey where the river is babbling over the stones, the clear night is crisp and the stars look like we can touch them, but there is an internal light shining from the river which makes the listener want to discover more.

This is a trip, a journey, a musical experience which needs to be played on headphones when the listener has the time to do just that, when they can sit back and be taken into a new world where anything can happen. It is joyous, unexpected, demonstrating how just three guys can create something magical which is out of place, out of time, and all the better for it. It is very different to the last album, as the band continue to progress and create their own identity. What will be next I wonder?

by Kev Rowland 9/10