Straight To Audio - The Long Champs (Tici Taci)

Title: Straight To Audio

Artist: The Long Champs

Label: Tici Taci

Cat Number: tici taci 062

Genre: Indie Dance/Alternative Rock

1: Next Stop Nowhere

2: The Skriker

3: Men Of Letters

4: Nothing But Love

5: Apples Are Not The Answer

6: Invader

7: Opel

8: Straight To Audio

This is the debut album from The Long Champs, aka Lloyd Jones and, as such, it sort of defies easy categorization. That’s not to say it's the proverbial abstract bag of tricks, rather that the moods created, along with the deployed instrumentation render compartmentalization difficult. (The genres indicated above are nicked from other attempts at pigeonholing). Let’s just say that it is recognizably Tici Taci while being entirely of it’s own space and time. The chug is omnipresent, but the way it is conveyed makes for very interesting listening. Throughout the album the presence of guitars, resplendent within a fug of fuzz fracas is omnipresent. This leads to some magnificent mutations; ‘Nothing But Love’ represents a peak of sorts, with its multi-layered, dense washes of sound determining nothing but bringing the unexpected into sharper focus. ‘Invader’ is pure mirror ball magnificence, leaning towards an italo synthesized somnolence. The title track ends the collection on a wistful note which reminds me of peak Echo and The Bunnymen in tone and tenor. Just a passing thought I reckon. However, listening to this collection encourages that sort of perspective, and is encouraging in that, like all good music, it’s never going to repeat itself in exactly the same way.