Reviews
Artist: Tiny Clocks
Album: The Victorian Noise EP
Label: Backwater Records
Tracks: 4
Website:http://www.backwaterrecords.com/
"Kooky!" There I said it. I was trying not to but couldn't help myself. "Captain Beefheart" There's another one. "Brian Cant!" That's a bit unfair. "John Otway"'s OK, but when you're first track 'Ventora Ocean' opens with "First door on the right, that's New Zealand" and includes "The Corgi needs new tyres" you can't expect standard references. The next song 'Toys from Switzerland' includes the first line "Oh No! So the Swiss can tell the time..." and by now I'm hooked. The more you listen the more amusing and, dare I say, clever it seems to get.
Tiny Clocks is clearly the product of two unusual minds and a trawl through their quite extensive back catalogue confirms it. 'Jane It's Not December' is just as strange and the arrival of what sounds like an Elizabethan wind piano at the end only adds to the effect. 'Radio Lady' as a final track is much more predictable musically and almost sing-a-long but I'm sure there's something weird going on in the lyrics.
I imagine that there's quite a fan base out there for these guys but I can't imagine they'd notice if there were and quite fittingly, don't appear to have embraced such predicable tools at Twitter and Facebook. They seem to inhabit Suffolk quite comfortably but if they ever venture near me and decide to tell anyone, I'd love to see them live.