Search - Fire Department :: Elpee for Another Time

Time bounded by the urgent and wistful

Simon Strong | Melbourne, Australia | 11/11/2002

(5 out of 5 stars)

"The Fire Dept, fronted by Neil Palmer, were (and remain) one of the finest groups to tread the boards in the closing years of the last millenium. I would consider this, their second LP, as the greatest undiscovered LP out of England, ever. Coming at it from a 1966 proto-psyche / freakbeat spin - fuelled with strong tea in the gallery cafe of Brighton's Regency gallery just over from the Royal Pavilion. Long long meetings as we waitied for Colin to spring the wedge that would enable the recording. The longer he procrastinated, the longer we schemed. How could we encode material that Colin would sign off on, but that would later take revenge on his dithering? Meanwhile, Palmer pursued a different agenda. Evocations of Time. J.W. Dunne was (is) a big fave. The Future Lyric Utility. Covers of pre-Grateful Dead tunes. Beautiful eloquent and heartrending ballads that turn out to be about pissing in shop doorways. Fscking the levels during mastering so you have to continually adjust the volume during playback. Got up 4am just to record birdsong in St Anne's Wells Gardens. No birds just lorries. Includes a half-completed booklet of explanatory essays by Stewart Home. If you like Supergrass you don't possess the discrimination to recognise genius. Nous sommes jamais vu..."