Stanley Brinks and The Wave Pictures
Album: Gin
Label: Fika
Tracks: 10
Website: http://stanleybrinks.bandcamp.com/

Stanley Brinks first started performing as Andre Herman Dune back in 1999 and in the intervening years has recorded over a hundred albums as part of Herman Dune, with elements of the New York Antifolk scene and as Stanley Brinks, both with and without The Wave Pictures, who have also delivered albums in their own right.

When an artist has put together that number of recordings it doesn't come across as surprise to discover that there is a fair element of improvisation in what they do. "Gin" does have that improvised feel, there are times when it feels like a jazz album, heck there are times when it feels like the precursor to a knife fight in a sleazy Havana Bar.

There is a wonderful naïve feel to the album, more impressionistic than precise. It has an intensity like Gauguin, bright and colourful but still with that all is not right in paradise feel. That said on tracks like "Spinola Bay" I think there are times when both Brinks and The Wave Pictures, try just a little too hard to be off the wall and that does detract from the whole.

If you like structure in your music, I don't think this is going to be your cup of tea, but if you've got a passion for musical mystery tours, this is going to be right up your street and probably for a long time to come.

Neil King