Jack Cheshire
Album: Long Mind Hotel
Label: Gun 20
Tracks: 10
Website: http://www.jackcheshire.com/

West Country singer songwriter Jack Cheshire, has already established himself as an artist that is incredibly difficult to pin down and "Long Mind Hotel" his only his third album. His debut album, "Allow It To Come On" was very minimalist in terms of its construction, though in retrospect it is difficult to tell how much of that was forced on him by the lo-fi bedsit setting it was recorded in and how much was a conscious choice.

There was no disputing album number two, "Copenhagen" was very much a conscious choice having located himself in rural Sweden and recorded his psychedelic influenced sound as a trio, alongside Jon Scott and Philip Moll, with local musician Djamilla Skogland Voss contributing backing vocals.

Similarly with "Long Mind Hotel" Cheshire headed off into comparative isolation, this time at the Saw Mill Studio, famously tucked away up a Cornish tidal estuary and only accessible at high tide, to put together a sound. Once again he's managed to find a tangent. Percussionist Jon Scott is the only survivor from the previous album, adding two other jazz orientated musicians, bassist Andrea DiBiase and guitarist David James Pearson to influence his indie sensibilities.

There is a lot of "Long Mind Hotel" that feels spontaneous almost like having laid down the basic track Jack and the crew then took some time to jam around the theme. The result is an album that has a structure running through it, but then take a Portmerion approach to furnishing the outside.

Jack Cheshire is an artist that you can't predict, well except for the quality, you also know that he's not going to take it so far out he takes it beyond the edge, he's not an artist that stupid enough to be too clever for his own good.

"Long Mind Hotel" is a genuinely indie album, Jack Cheshire is really showing himself as a stand out talent, one who might start pulling in a few jazzers to enhance his steadily growing band of indie thinkers and followers

Neil King