Following further lateral psych-pop routes, itinerant veteran Joss Cope delivers Indefinite Particles, his second solo album for Gare Du Nord

Joss Cope is a near-perfect fit for the well-travelled ‘waifs and strays’ corner of the collectivist Gare Du Nord Records, a label that has enabled niche release routes for the esoteric explorations of the equally-nomadic Darren Hayman, Robert Rotifer, Jack Hayter and Keiron Phelan in recent years. Drawing down from his lengthy CV that stretches back to Liverpool’s post-punk scene (that has included spells in bands like Freight Train and Biff Bang Pow! and guest-playing on his more famous brother Julian’s Fried and St. Julian albums along the way) and glancing back at the art-school-educated rock pros of the 60s and 70s, this second solo long-player from Cope is a compact yet internally-sprawling affair, that crystallizes his late-blooming credentials as a standalone creator.

Packed but not cluttered with conceptual connections and soaked in scholarly backwards sonic touches this middle album in a putative trilogy, following on from 2017’s Unrequited Lullabies, was recorded largely live in a Helsinki studio in an empathetic ensemble set-up, replete with guitars, bass, drums and all manner of keyboards. Served-up as a psych-pop smorgasbord, lyrically-infused with both nostalgic and modern-day observational surrealism, Indefinite Particles powers along with a loose-limbed momentum that becomes more infectious with each airing.

From the White Light/White Heat-meets-Perfect Prescription chugging and swirling of the opening title-track inwards, Cope veers through the gathered pieces with style-hopping flair, his vocal tones curiously joining the dots between Syd Barrett, Robyn Hitchcock and Neil Tennant en route. Thus, there is paisley-patterned Fifth Dimension-era Byrds folk-rock (“From a Great Height” and “She’s Going To Change Your World”); cavernous Teardrop Explodes-like lysergic but melodic wigging-out (“Radium Came” and “Hit the Wall”); knowing Kinksian stomping janglers (“Healed” and “True Nature”); winsome yet tart balladry (“Who Are You Trying To Kid?” and “Lifeboat Service”); and ragged warped garage-rock (“Mad King Ludwig”).

Whilst some slightly less foggy production values might have made for a crisper and more distinctive listen in places, Indefinite Particles is on the whole a satisfyingly strong suite of songs capturing an old hand having an endearing artistic rebirth.

www.garedunordrecords.co.uk

www.facebook.com/josscopemusic

Adrian
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