Think Pink

General | Sep 2013

Reviews

awyeh
Reviewed 2013-09-18
Reissue of the 1969/70 debut of Twink, UK psych musician, on Sunbeam Records. Connections (of band members) can probably made to every well-known UK psych band that wasn't known for only commercial reasons from the era. Not the Coachella hipsters of their time; these guys played outside Isle of Wight, Bath, etc. in protest, for free. Alternates between being charmingly dated and timeless. RIYL: The Pretty Things, pre-Meddle Floyd, Syd Barrett, The Deviants, Pink Fairies, Tyrannosaurus Rex. Foggy: London fog, SF fog, mental fog. As a former bootleg buyer of the scene, yeah this kicks almost all late-60s UK psych out of the water. Bonus tracks may be better than the album, and were prepared with involvement of the artist; check them out!

1 (3:42) "In the year 1999 and 7 months..." 60's psychedelic reverbed, shouted apocalyptic prophecy, and then shouting/barking, over droning Eastern/British instrumentation
*2 (4:29) Warped psych-pop, great rhythm, natural vs artificial imagery, soaring soft druggy backing vox, tremendously large solos
3 (1:45) Wandering instrumentation, incl. strings, woodwinds, behind meandering vox; drony cousin of a hare krishna chant
*4 (5:18) Rainy day psych-blues-sky; slow, reverbed plod intermixed with insane guitar solos.
5 (4:05) Groovin' psych jam, vaguely sexual female vox/moans, big solos
6 (5:27) Noisy feedbacky, pounding circus march drums, shouting
7 (2:42) Spoken fairy tale beginning; groovy, bouncing tune
8 (4:23) Acoustic; a little darker, Eastern flavor; soft, xylophoney parts, about suicide
9 (3:12) "Three little piggies," lots of shouted-sung vox about piggies, chimes like hell, full on screamed man-being-British-woman at end. "Oink oink." Manson? Cops? People? does it matter?
10 (2:23) Psychy post-Dylan, pre-Bowie, the moral of the album
--- Bonus Tracks ---
*11 (3:25) Lo-fi version of track 2; not quite a demo, probably an early take. Brassy. The solos are so "lo-fi", way less intricate, I love it
12 (4:40) Dated; charmingly dated, but very dated. Good wizard vs. bad wizard "I've cast 5... good spells... vs your 4 naughty... spells"
13 (4:54) Another lo-fi version of track 2; good, but only play if you've played 2 and 11 on your show already
14 (3:24) Bell on a string introand outro; hella long druggy version of 3
*15 (3:40) Alt. version of 5, fucking awesome, electric jamming, jarring, great percussion, some joint on Valencia will be playing a band who keeps a similar style but is worse, tonight
16 (4:19) Drummy, meandering guitar version of 5. Laid-back bass/guitar, drums just groove along.
*17 (2:15) Snappy, synthy, version of 7. File in with the Modern Lovers for being ahead of their time. Nice groove, sparse vox.
18 (3:10) Alt. version of 8, reverbed, echoed, handclapped

Recent airplay

Suicide
Time Traveler — Dec 06, 2013
10,000 Words In A Cardboard Box
Stringless Balloon — Dec 05, 2013
10,000 Words In A Cardboard Box
Suicide
Time Traveler — Nov 29, 2013
Rock An'roll Joint Al Version
maximum entropy — Nov 27, 2013
10,000 Words In A Cardboard Box
Stringless Balloon — Nov 21, 2013

Charting

2013-10-10 — 2013-12-12
Week EndingAirplays
Dec 8 2
Dec 1 3
Nov 24 1
Nov 17 1
Nov 3 2
Oct 27 3
Oct 20 3
Oct 13 2

Track listing

1. The Coming Of The Other One
2. 10,000 Words In A Cardboard Box
3. Dawn Of Magic
4. Tiptoe On The Highest Hill
5. Fluid
6. Mexican Grass War
7. Rock An'roll The Joint
8. Suicide
9. Three Little Piggies
10. The Sparrow Is A Sign
11. 10,000 Words In A Cardboard Box
12. Dawn Of Magic Alt Version
13. Fluid Alt Version
14. Fluid Alt Version 2
15. Rock An'roll Joint Al Version
16. Suicide Alt Version