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Album: Kelley Stoltz

Antique Glow, BEAUTIFUL HAPPINESS

Andy Gill
Friday 23 July 2004 00:00 BST
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Described by its creator as "like a mix tape of me doing my best Beefheart, Nick Drake and Syd Barrett", Antique Glow was originally issued by Kelley Stoltz in a private edition in 2001, only now receiving a wider release. It presents the former Jeff Buckley intern as a lo-fi combination of Brian Wilson and Kevin Shields, on tracks such the opener "Perpetual Night", in which the layers of guitars and synths swirl, swell and subside amid a susurrus of cymbals dotted with glockenspiel. Clearly an unreconstructed psychedelicist, Stoltz also has a nice line in Krautrock motorik grooves such as "Are You Electric" and "Mt Fuji", the latter's chugging riff and noodling bass clarinet sounding rather like Neu! jamming with Henry Cow. Elsewhere, the Syd Barrett influence is evident in the jaunty whimsicality of songs such as "Please Visit Soon" - a fantasy about a balloon trip - and the references to Atlantis in "Listen Darkly" and "Crystal Ball", tracks embellished with the infantile sounds of ice-cream

Described by its creator as "like a mix tape of me doing my best Beefheart, Nick Drake and Syd Barrett", Antique Glow was originally issued by Kelley Stoltz in a private edition in 2001, only now receiving a wider release. It presents the former Jeff Buckley intern as a lo-fi combination of Brian Wilson and Kevin Shields, on tracks such the opener "Perpetual Night", in which the layers of guitars and synths swirl, swell and subside amid a susurrus of cymbals dotted with glockenspiel. Clearly an unreconstructed psychedelicist, Stoltz also has a nice line in Krautrock motorik grooves such as "Are You Electric" and "Mt Fuji", the latter's chugging riff and noodling bass clarinet sounding rather like Neu! jamming with Henry Cow. Elsewhere, the Syd Barrett influence is evident in the jaunty whimsicality of songs such as "Please Visit Soon" - a fantasy about a balloon trip - and the references to Atlantis in "Listen Darkly" and "Crystal Ball", tracks embellished with the infantile sounds of ice-cream-van chimes and fairground calliope. There's an engaging, languid charm to the album as a whole, with Stoltz's dispassionate baritone best utilised on the country-blues moan "One Thousand Rainy Days", whose ramshackle raunch recalls the early Stones or The White Stripes.

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