One of the most unusual releases of the year – 32 tracks, more than 2 hours, with a style from an indeterminate era, perhaps echoes of Tom Waits, Guided By Voices, Duane Eddy, Dick Dale, Americana and old clip-clop westerns, but especially 60s girl groups – come delicate and crash-bang electric guitar, percussion and vocals from the glammed-up alter ego of Canadian songwriter, guitarist, and drag performer Patrick Flegel. Released last month and only available on YouTube and as a download on their website as a self-release, each song feels like a ghost of another, all relating tales of lost lovers. From the jangly guitars and gradual build of the opening title track into the beautiful fragility of Flegel’s voice, it’s a compellingly odd experience, like tuning to a strange radio station on a road trip to nowhere from the back of beyond, but constantly unfolding into ever more truly great songs. “The other day/I could have sworn I heard you call my name/All through the melodies of yesterday/’Til kingdom come,” we hear like an echo from another age with that engaging, eerie girl-group delivery on Kingdom Come through retro guitar chops and intricate arpeggios. Meanwhile Stone Faces has a daring, in-your-face kind of funk. If You Hear Me Crying has tragic melancholy, while Flesh and Blood has a soaring energy, and has hooky guitar riffs. There’s a stop-start energy and melancholy to the whole album, filled with treasures to uncover from Always Dreaming, to All I Want Is You or Crime of Passion, Dracula are a few suggestions, or the weird folk style electric guitar of Le Machiniste Fantome. Beautifully strange, inventive, lo-fi garage rock, odd and compelling, the more you listen, this album feels like a work of otherworldly genius. Self-released and available on the YouTube link below in one continuous listen, or with a suggested donation via this Geocities website via Realistik. Some footage of an impromptu Cindy Lee performance is also below.
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