Label: Emotional Rescue – ERC014
Format: Vinyl, LP, Album, Reissue, Remastered, White Sleeve, Screen Printed version
Country: UK
Released: Jul 2013
Genre: Electronic, Rock
Style: New Age, New Wave, Minimal, Ambient, Acoustic, Experimental
Cosy, endearing home-brewed classic from brothers Mark and Clive Ives aka Woo.. big favourite, (mint / VG+ - sleeves have slight seam split in the top).
A year after Drag City’s reissue of their soft-hued bedroom psych gem 'It’s Cozy Inside', the Woo revival continues with an Emotional Rescue reissue of their similarly slanted and enchanted 1982 debut, 'Whichever Way Your Are Going You Are Going Wrong'. You may previously have encountered it four of five years ago on Mutant Sounds, who proclaimed ipast “absolute unsung genius...uncanny and weirdly affecting”, and certainly weren’t wrong. Both the original private pressing on the band’s own Sunshine Series and the subsequent re-release on Savage Republic’s Independent Projects label are much sought after, but collector’s cache of this album is secondary to its musical value - it really is a classic. Working with acoustic guitars, clarinet, rhythm box, keyboards, singing bowls, pixiephone and subtle processing, this is gloriously DIY, melancholic, avant-garde pastoralism that connects the dots between Pentangle, Gareth Williams, Penguin Cafe Orchestra, Dif Juz and Robert Wyatt. From the cool summer breeze of opener, which sounds like a library-rock jam between Basil Kirchin and Vini Reilly, to the trippy, proto-techno drum ‘n Moog mantras of ‘Pokhara’ and ‘The Cleaner’, and mystic folk ruminations like ‘C.H. Revisited’ and ‘A Wave’, there isn’t a dull moment. The second half of the album goes deeper into dubwise Arcadian jazz, Mark Ives’ woozy treated woodwind taking centre-stage, and the one vocal cut, ‘The Attic’, is a stunning instance of wry, painterly, Eno-esque pop.
Tracklist
A1 Swingtime
A2 Pokhara
A3 C.H.Revisited
A4 A Wave
A5 The Cleaner
A6 Wah Bass
A7 The Attic
B1 Razorblades
B2 White And Whiter Still!
B3 Wapping
B4 Life In Shadows
B5 The English Style Of Rowing
B6 "Whichever Way You Are Going,You Are Going Wrong"