June 2002 • Rockbites Alternative Daily
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June 2002 • Rockbites Alternative Daily
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Lone Pigeon’s 3rd LP a lo-fi masterpiece 25 June 2002
Gordon Anderson aka Lone Pigeon, from St. Andrews in the ancient Kingdom of Fife on Scotland’s east coast, founded The Beta Band (briefly known as The Pigeons) with front man Steve Mason as 1995 turned to 1996. He co-wrote and played on the demo that got them signed, then left London and The Beta Band to return north—a frightening bout of mental illness contributing to his choice. Working as a solo artist and with his brother, Fence Records chief Kenny Anderson (aka King Creosote), Lone Pigeon has recorded hundreds of songs onto analog 4- and 8-track, and some digitally, in his home studio. His first two album-length releases—28 Secret Tracks and Moses, both out of print—were uneven affairs built from song fragments with moments of brilliance but little to hold them together. On his third LP, Concubine Rice, out this week, Anderson tempers his chaotic musical genius with an artless, natural continuity, allowing the whole to grow into something breathtakingly beautiful. The disc includes 13 full songs (plus a hidden track) intermingled with 13 fragments, spanning genres like a snoring, dreaming check-out stand in the early morning hours at a Virgin Megastore. You can play name-that-reference with this album, starting out, perhaps, with The Beatles, Tom Waits, Julian Cope, and Beck, and that’s fun. But it’s certainly not the point. Lone Pigeon blithely slips into and out of musical motifs, changing styles with as little apparent effort as he uses to come up with the next heartbreakingly pretty melody or startlingly clever couplet. One minute it’s instrumental/filmic synth plus accordian or rubbed wineglasses plus guitar, the next it’s a twisted take on Kurt Weill, then it’s psychedelic ’60s garage rock, each one masterful and a diamond in its own right. The extreme variety on Concubine Rice, along with the fragmentary nature of half the songs, make this album come off a bit like sheet music found scattered across the floor from a wind that’s blown through the house all night. Yet that ad-hoc, nearly random flavor combines synergistically with the songs. It couldn’t be otherwise. Concubine Rice came out yesterday on the Sketch label for the UK and is available today for the US on Domino (although some outlets, notably Amazon, won’t release it Stateside till 2 July). Fence Records says there are hundreds more Lone Pigeon songs recorded but not yet released. All I can say is Gimme! Well, that, and Take good care, Mr. Anderson. Five bites out of five. Rockbites ratings 5: life changing, 4: stunning, 3: captivating, 2: amusing, 1: annoying. | The Lone Pigeon | | The Lone Pigeon on Fence Records | | CD from Amazon US | | top of page | |
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