Seven.… Not pictured: six more white horses

Review: Spider 72 – Seven.

Published on February 20th, 2013 | Jonny Abrams

Beaulieu Porch bloke Simon Berry has a power-pop side project called Spider 72, and guess what: they/he (we shall endeavour to find out) have also turned in a really quite belting album. Berry’s talents may be fuzzy and a little eccentric, but that’s all the more reason to take them very seriously indeed.

“Fathermother” is fabulous psych-pop that’s not too in thrall to the psych to forget the pop, showing also a clear shoegaze influence and going on to carve open ornate breakdown sections featuring a harpsichord and then some kind of horn. This combination of elements reminds of The Boo Radleys circa Giant Steps, and for those who may be wondering that is one lofty comparison.

“Devolution” sounds a bit like Guided By Voices meets Bandwagonesque-era Teenage Fanclub meets Belle and Sebastian’s “Legal Man”, all these wonderful things. It lines up a floaty mid-section then comes storming consummately back in with a cracking rhythm section, paving the way for the bass line of “Hello World” to take a walk down some gorgeously sun-kissed avenue, cheerfully spinning its instantly winning melody on its way to the curious ELO-isms and big, sludgy chorus of “Scene 4”.

“Apollo’s Here” is scintillating stuff, its brooding verse like latter-day Supergrass covering Kevin Ayers’s “The Lady Rachel” with extra added electronic swooshes, while “Thursday Sound Revival” echoes “Ring a Ring o’Roses” a darn sight more agreeably than Robbie Williams did on that horrible thing he just performed at the BRIT Awards.

Delightful also is the disoriented/disorienting rush of sugary sunshine that is “Salvador’s Friends”, the high-pitched “woo oo”s and closing electronic noise of which bring to mind early Super Furry Animals, and the application of sing-song falsetto to thrashy power chords that makes “Giant Superman” (what a title!) thrillingly reminiscent of this erstwhile Boos single.

All of which leaves the vampy stomp of “It’s Good to Be Bad” and the swaggering yet approachable “Old Electric and The Sideways Man” (again, what a title!) to bring the curtain down on a second LP’s worth of high-quality psych-pop from yer man Berry within the space of a few months. Cap well and truly doffed.

Rocksucker says: Four Quails out of Five!

a quail a quail a quail a quail

Seven. is out now on Tillsammans Records. For more information, please visit beaulieuporch.com/spider72.cfm

Artists: beaulieu porch, spider 72

About the Author

Jonny Abrams Editor of Rocksucker and the website's founder, Jonny is passionate about the music he listens to, both good and bad, as well as interviewing his favourite musicians.