Tensheds
Album: The Dandy Punk Prince
Label: Self Released
Tracks: 12
Website: http://www.tensheds.com

It's been five years since Matthew Millership released his last album, 'Crazy Beautiful', and I've been eagerly awaiting the follow-up. Like the younger Nigel Kennedy, Millsership sports a Mohawk haircut and is classically trained, except his instrument is piano rather than violin. It's a background he puts to good use here, playing an 1835 Collard & Collard grand on what he calls an album of "21st Century Blues". That, percussion, drums (by Ed Wells) and harmonica are the only instruments here, Millership's classical background firmly in evidence on the 70 second intro to six-minute opening track, 'Shooting Myself', which calls to mind Rachmaninoff, before, on the back of puttering drums, it heads into the sort of dark cabaret territory you might associate with Kurt Weill and he breaks out into a throaty Waitsian rasp on lyrics about being self-destructive.

He remains in throaty mode for the uptempo, keyboard stabbing and, dare I say, anthemically-inclined, 'Framed For Glory', a song about growing older and time running away, then, harmonica sounding like a guitar, 'Sexshaker' is pure blues rock n roll boogie with strong shades of Champion Jack Dupree. Reverting to same percussive rhythm of the opener, it's also back to the Waits junkyard for 'Milktrain' only for the mood and tone to change significantly for the tempus fugit-themed 'Fabric Of Time', another six-minuter, with the piano shifting from nervy repeated notes to dramatic flourishes, the quivering, emotion-soaked vocals soaring to choral heights as it builds to its towering climax.

Elsewhere, the tinkling musical box piano and choral backing intro to 'War' belies its apocalyptic lyrics, 'Home' is a scurrying second cousin to Brecht-Weill's 'Alabama Song' and 'Doghouse 'an old school blues boogie a la Jerry Lee Lewis. In a nice touch of complementary sequencing, 'Search Out My Soul' leans on American spirituals for a lyric about how "this country is bleeding us dry" while, with its male voice chorus, the following track, 'Exile', calls to mind a Welsh hymnal. At least until it transforms into a jittery, piano-stabbing stadium rocker.

I've noted Waits as an influence, and ballad album closer 'Ice Cream Jesus' has all the same Bukowski and booze-soaked bruised majesty as those on 'Looking For The Heart of Saturday Night', but Dylan also echoes strongly on the gravelly talking piano blues 'Powder Blues Leather Pinned Mohair Noose'. However, while comparisons can be made, like Tensheds himself, this is a unique, musically bold and unconventional album. Camus said that the dandy "is always compelled to astonish", Milliship does just that.

Mike Davies