The Capstan Shafts
The Sleeved and Grandaughters of the Blacklist
Abandoned Love Records

Of all the low fidelity records I have heard this must be at the very bottom of the pile!

In a world where most musicians strive for technical perfection there is so relieving to say hello to Dean Wells and his one man project. Hello, Dean, you're alone on this record aren't you? [The editor sighs in the background, mumbling something about "gave you a press release" etc. etc.]. At this point this writer continues to believe that Mr. Wells plays everything on this record and therefore guesses that he compensate for that fact by turning the recording equipment up to 11 on most of the songs. This gives the impression of a very loud album no matter which position the volume knob is set to.

The music sounds like a mix between raw scetches done by a sober Robert Pollard (if you can imagine that) and ditto by the slightly overrated Butterscott. The songs are all melodic, short (you don't have time to grow tired of them even if you wanted to) and the distorted sounds actually grow on you after a while. And I can't help thinking that he actually has a very good voice. When you reach song 14 the album has yet to pass the 20 minute mark but at that point the songs begin to sound a bit like the ones earlier on the record, so some editing should probably have taken place.

Dean Wells has released several home-recorded CDs over the last few years and I gladly admit that I play this one more often than I thought I would after hearing the first few seconds of it. And that must be a good thing, mustn't it? This CD is limited to 100 copies, so be quick!

Copyright © 2006 pïngö