A band formed, according to legend, after the revelatory purchase of a cheap keyboard and the formation of the basic tunes that primary members Anthony Dolphin and Katherine Marshall managed to pick out and set to tape, Santa Sprees have emerged as one of England’s most prolifically recording quirk-pop units. As the story gets even more convoluted when taking into account the numerous recordings they’ve made with various labels, as well as their setting down roots in Greece and Japan, you can lose track of the fact that Keep Still is actually Santa Sprees’ first official full-length release.
With 24 tracks founded on lilting melodies and Anthony Dolphin’s hushed, creaky voice, Santa Sprees make sleepy-toned lo-fi pop largely without modern parallel. Sure, Dolphin’s voice calls to mind that of Vic Chesnutt very frequently, with similarly unique phrasing dipped in a homespun innocence and thin soulfulness, but the simple, engaging pop songs largely fail to adhere to many of today’s songwriting conventions. And that’s a good thing.
Displaying a knowledge of how to use musical minimalism to their advantage, Santa Sprees nonetheless craft strangely complex songs with a variety of sounds. Restrained strings, xylophone, piano, and Marshall’s backup vocals form the backdrop for “Wasted On You,” a gorgeously defeated lament for someone too good to be “wasted on” their current partner. Similarly, the watery keyboards and folkish harmonica of “Petrified” sounds like Highway 61 Revisited-era Dylan crossed with the elegance of Brian Wilson limited to a few synths. The prancing, almost joyous accordion found in “Make Up Dust” turns into a reflective ballad, as many of the songs use slightly off-kilter sounds to ruminate on rather commonplace topics of love and security.
Always willing to change the pace, the waltz-time balladry of “Our Charity Pt. 1,” (a song with two seemingly unrelated sequels in “Our Charity Pt.2” and “Our Charity Pt. 3,”) is soon followed an a capella gospel tribute to Ra the Sun god, which is in turn succeeded by the catchy garage stomp of “Making a Row Man,” which comes dangerously close to lifting the groove out of the Velvet Underground’s “Sweet Jane.” The strangely familiar “Start Again!” chugs along with a marching band beat, another in the seemingly endless stream of tracks that maintains a depth while never relying on a cluttered, or even overly busy, sonic palette.
By the end of the 60-minute audition, Santa Sprees’ delightfully awkward rendering of pop forms equally twee and chamber is overwhelmingly winning. They may not be calling for a complete renovation of the indie landscape, but they do manage to recast familiar strains in creative and distinctive forms. Even when the sounds they find are rather obscured, the sum effect is still very human and inviting due to the tentative vulnerability of the performance. In the end, that honesty may be what most sets Santa Sprees apart from their like-minded contemporaries. (Matt Fink)
an ultra lo-fi dream of surreal instrumentation and distortion
It’s a mystery from where the Santa Sprees have sprung. Based on the two songs included on Dreamy Records’ Head in the Clouds compilation and, now this, their fabulous debut album, this Tokyo-based pair of Brits have spun straight out of an ultra lo-fi dream of surreal instrumentation and distortion. With synthesized beauty, the Sprees’ Anthony Dolphin pelts us with his sputtery, sparkling vocals, overlapping and twisting his voice around the sounds of sleigh-bells, diamonica, melodion, and 5-string guitar, among others. Not many artists could create such a delicate balance between these disparate elements, but there lies the mystery of the Santa Sprees... they are both endearing and silly, enchanting and refreshing. (Louise Zervas)
a magnum opus - twenty four tracks of lo-fi genius
From the very marvellous Dreamy Records, home of the most beautiful and colourful press releases in the world, comes the weird and wonderful world of Santa Sprees.
'Keep Still' is a magnum opus - 24 tracks of lo-fi genius that makes Badly Drawn Boy sound like Johnny Hates Jazz, and you've got to hand it to mad people - they make brilliant music.
And how can one fail to love a band that writes songs called 'Alcoholic Gunslingers are Cool' and 'Late Teens in the Clinic'?
This is a funny album, but it's also a little bit spooky. It's the sound of backward little villages and weird goings on in the house on the corner. But it's all the better for that, as Santa Sprees make a sound that will both make you rattle with laughter and shudder with suspicion. And that, my friends, is as good a recommendation as any. (Tasty Zine)
santa sprees
reviews
sleepy-toned lo-fi pop
largely without
modern parallel
the beach boys
on lithium
Hailing from Japan, Santa Sprees are proprietors of truly warped, twisted, but ultimately dangerously addictive pop songs. Think Hefner but with keyboards, with Jonathan Richman sensibilities and a perfectly skewed view of the world. The world of Santa Sprees is at once sublime and ridiculous, but a joy to get lost in.
This twenty-four track album is a perfect introduction to the band. Part curious noisescapes, with titles such as ‘Kitten Come Home’ and ‘Roll Out The Beds’ and part glorious, gloriously chaotic vocals from Anthony Dolphin with delicately delightful musical accompaniment. ‘Wasted On You’, then, is soft and gorgeous, with lyrics that rapidly become a trademark (‘She had a withered arm/ that she flopped around you…’).
In fact, the whole record deviates between the bizarre and the genius, blurring distinctions between the two. ‘Late Teens In The Clinic’, a touching ode to the tribulations of teenage acne is actually throbbing and seductive in its execution, almost like the Beach Boys on lithium. ‘Alcoholic Gunslingers Are Cool’, similarly, is naïve and precious, joyously amateurish.
Like the Moldy Peaches album, reviewed last month, this album is a testament to the fact that even the most simplistic music can be clever, witty and engaging. Great stuff. PH.
santa sprees continue to amaze and impress
Growing up, I owned a single music poster. It was some goofy one of the Alarm, in which they stood beside a flag, wearing mousse and trying to look serious. The poster wasn't very big, but it stood apart from all the other posters in my bedroom because there were no dismembered heads, rotting flesh or disembowled bikers hanging out with these fine-haired Canadians. You see, I was a kid raised on Fangoria, and my idol was Tom Savini, the special effects maestro who had his intestines ripped out (on screen, that is) in Dawn of the Dead. One of the things that makes Santa Sprees so special to me is that they shared my same dream. Their song on 1999's Head in the Clouds compilation, "I Wish I'd Been An Extra in Dawn of the Dead", was not only cool and kooky but rang very true to me.
Enter their first album, Keep Still, on which the Santa Sprees continue to amaze and impress. While they stake no claim here to other dreams I've had, each of these 24 lo-fi pop delights shows Tokyo exiles Anthony Dolphin and Katherine Marshall to be Bob Pollard with a little bit of twee and a lot of originality. "Alcholic Gunslingers Are Cool" boasts a simple but wonderful keyboard line, and harmony vocals that add a sense of longing and dreaminess to the track. You get the impression that they're singing in front of a poster of John Wayne, and getting teary-eyed. Other highlights, like "Our Charity Pt 1", come off like some delirious carnival trip, but benefit again from Dolphin's vocals, which always have a way of keeping the craziness from being just a one-time-listening thrill. His voice, which sometimes breaks and sometimes just squeaks, is never a deficit. Instead, it has a way of giving extra dimensions to the group's work, bringing added levels of drama to tracks like "Back There".
Comparisons with Guided By Voices are all over the place -- 24 wonderfully titled songs, all of them short, some of them more like great fragments than fully-fledged songs -- but Santa Sprees have a far more cinematic quality to their material, as if they did homework for the album by watching Fellini's documentary, Clowns, with the soundtrack blasting. There are so many strange instruments played here, not to mention a wealth of strange sounds that I wouldn't have believed a keyboard, guitar or harmonica could project. Not only a potential Bible for future bedroom popsters, Keep Still is simply great fun. (Theodore Defosse, Splendid ezine)
flow of wonder
Santa Sprees have crafted a biggy among albums out there. It feels as if it's three albums in one, so you bet you will be finding things of your liking and maybe some things that are not. But more importantly, you will find a wealth of genuine, fun entertainment. While some encounters with lengthy, filled-up releases are a bit as if they had thrown their hats at it, Santa Sprees clearly had kept the hat firmly on with every track and manically added a lot of love, attention and yes quality to each recording.
Yep, it’s nice to toss around a nice bunch of complimentary feathers if it is deserved once in a while. Maybe the pandemic helped, as it isn’t hard to imagine Santa Sprees being hard hit by it, but seemingly embraced the sea of new-found time to chase the dragon of songs, sound and music. It’s much better than being joblessly sobbing your final days away, right? Santa Sprees is investing in a brighter future, or if you play this album it actually brightens up your day immediately. Doctors orders can go to hell, but if I had been a groovy doctor I would for sure prescribe this album instead of all those pharmaceutical mood-altering ‘happy’ pills.
Yep, you go for this and forget about the rest for a while. Feeling those happy slap bass in your funny bones and sometimes even hum along as if you had heard it somewhere before. Even though it seems like hours of music over here, it is clear that Santa Sprees clearly aimed and conquered a certain home baked quality to all of it. No stone is seemingly left behind and that does my heart as a random music lover well and good. With this in mind, I clearly find myself happily diving into this mega album over and over again. Even keeping it in the collection, ready to play it to every visitor that dares to come over in my little music room.
Good vibes and odd times go hand in hand, but in general there is a cozy vibe that clearly has the power to add a little quirky warmth and humidity to each and every household that it gets played in. I much prefer to find myself and guests spontaneously. happily dancing around in our underpants than being served a sad or doomed feeling that a lot of other 2020 albums seem to aim for. Yep, listening to Santa Sprees is an upper, maybe a bit odd to some but in general I believe it will unleash some floral happiness to most that dare to give it a fanatic background spin.
You can hear in between the rules that Santa Sprees has a broad interest and that it isn't afraid to side step out of its own comfy zone in order to try fun music things out, but for the most part Santa Sprees strength clearly sits in the songs, the honest singing, the wonky flubber bass and the quirky style of organs and sharp drums – it makes a colorful groovy world that has the energy to light up a room, makes your legs all wobbly and your mood into a happy dancing one. It’s playful and fun, turning starch faces into smiling ones and frozen mummies into flexible dancing elastic bendy types! Such a thing is hard to imagine but with the album named Sum Total of insolent blank it clearly is a natural self-explaining reaction.
There is a nice amount of self reflection, a great spoon of humor too. Yep, the songs that are sung is clearly no Lou Reed, but more like a genuine vocalist that has to let its heart out and isn’t afraid to blow the flute if it has to. From one flow of wonder into the next while it’s transitions are seemingly mostly decorated with little intermezzos that are way too nice to be labeled as such. It's just that they are a bit shorter and carry more room for those sidesteps out of Santa Sprees more comfortable zone. Not that they aren’t confident or cozy within those, it’s just that the actual strength of them seem to truly flourish in the tunes in which they seem at home and full of packed confidence. You know when it all joins up and flubber tightly in togetherness, when that bass hits, those drums kick and that organ plays and that singer speaks it’s genuine heart out.
It’s inviting friendly fire and certainly feels like that satisfying moment in which Hannibal of the A-team chews on a cigar and mumbles something about how much he likes it when a plan all comes together. This album right here seems to be a good reason to chew such a thing and mumble something alone similar lines as clearly all these songs, tunes – hours of genuine writing, production and recording – clearly came together as one. A happy medicine for all in need for a upper in these oddball bleak times. So if I was you, (and I ain’t you!) I would be stopping the Prozac supply and hitting that link at the bottom like a maniac, ready to hop and wiggle around in cozy quirky happiness for a while! (KN, Yeah I Know It Sucks)
small marvels in a perverse ecological niche, isolated from surrounding music fashion
Santa Sprees are an English duo made a couple form, Anthony Dolphin and Katherine Marshall, whose life changed one beautiful morning in 1994 with the unannounced arrival of inexpensive keyboard in their living room. Santa Sprees were born.
Anthony Dolphin is completely unable or unwilling to sing properly, but this is not limiting, its á virtue. Over the years, the timid guitar, harmonica, kazoo, a mellotron and other cheap instruments have become part of the Santa Sprees' sound, do-it-yourself and lo-fi certainly but not in the natural way one might expect.
While one or two CD compilations and a heap of cassettes exist, 'Keep Still' is their first real CD album. Their charm was born and made in a rather obtuse England, but Santa Sprees have found more acclaim in Japa the place of their exile.
A first listen to 'Keep Still', the names of Daniel Johnston, Jad Fair and Young Marble Giants invariably spring to mind and even, going a little further, those of Guided by Voices, Chris Knox, The Television Personalities and Sentridoh. Santa Sprees are a kind of twee pop version of the above. The twenty-four original asd simple compositions, are both pop and touching, the thin sound invariably effective and distinctive. Unlike Daniel Johnston or Young Marble Giants, any moments of absolute melancholic brilliance are undercut by humour. These are good pop songs with some merry peaks. A beautiful and noteworthy cluster of jewelry and beads.
The atmosphere is very nice, a little out of time. This talented duo invariably create small marvels in a perverse ecological niche, isolated from surrounding music fashions. While it remains very 2002, it could have existed in 1992 or 1982 too.
Of the twenty-four songs, attention is drawn to 'Alcoholic Gunslingers are Cool' with its pretty melody; 'Petrified' and its howls of guitar distortion; and 'Old Sage' which is completely bizarre and reminiscent of Katerine's 'Chinese Weddings'.
Another mini-hit is the noisy pop of 'Late Teens In The Clinic', another unlikely 'wrong' song, but one that is always engaging and kind.
'Make Up Dust' explores a more melancholic area and the discovery of strange control. 'Free Inside (Worldes Blis Ne Last)' plays in a vacuum, and is at once horribly disturbing and touching.
Santa Sprees have left us an album that will make adventurous fans of the genre happy. It is not without its problems but fans of anonymous indie music it is not. ·
(Didier Goudeseune, Derivatives Magasin, Paris)
psychoacoustical investigations
1. A man bites into a cheap biscuit. His mind is flooded with memories of life as a dairy farmer, and the day he met SANTA SPREES. He eagerly awaits the release of their new album, SUM TOTAL OF INSOLENT BLANK. What does this mean?
2. Ten transistor radios harmonise in the dark. And there is light.
3. LIFE BEGINS WITH SANTA SPREES
4. Silence. Two hundred and twenty magicians hesitate before a cosmos-spanning tympanic membrane, awaiting machine instruction. Finally one of them hits the fucking thing. An outpouring of music and song heralds the beginning of the age of the human being. PRIMITIVE AVANT BUBBLEGUM.
5. Symphonic meditations of twang and whistle reach for organic, melodious, marital Shangri-Las.
6. Scratched surfaces, microtonal meanderings, winsome warnings, and playful pipe organs twist, turn and rearrange the furniture.
7. YOU STRUCK GOLD WHEN YOU LISTENED TO THIS ALBUM.
8. The people live chained together facing the wall of a cave. Mind-numbing metronomy echoes from its surface into ears desensitised and scorched by the fires of Capital. One of them is freed, but she continues to stare insolently at the blankness, now intrigued by the sound of moth wings fluttering against ancient rock.
9. Progress swirls and swells. Straight lines are banished. Teleology is moulded by icing bags tracing the high points of Wedding Cake Decorative. History is plastic, yet spastic.
10. SUM TOTAL OF INSOLENT BLANK. THE CENTURY HAS NOW BEGUN.
11. I DO.
12. I DO, TOO.
(Monky Puzzle)
kaleidoscopic work of intense avant-garde beauty
I have never being good at selling myself nor my work and this music blog things just to keep me sane if people like it that’s a bonus. Everything I write comes from my heart. Music is nearly always on, I do not live with television nor have accounts for Netflix or any online subscription service. Choice and variation overwhelms me. Someone recently had left a comment. You’re thinking it’s only a comment but that one comment gave me positivism.
I was speechless with excitement upon discovering it was from a band I had to see if I could find them online contacting them to say thank you inquiring when a physical version will be released. Feeling uncomfortable about digital releases as my logic with technology is not that great. I always lose digital files ending up with album folders with no music whilst the imbecile in me loses note books and documents.
Conversation ensued back and forth I got a message "threatening" to send me music well that’s a new experience preferable to actuality getting beaten up but it did ultimately beat my ears up in a joyous rapture. Unzipping the file, feeling full of suspense, simultaneously being mortified, freaked out...my mind went dizzy all I did was think of bands like Nancy’s Place, Magnetic Fields, Naked City, Fantomas...discovering this album's whopping 43 tracks. I knew it would be all-consuming I just did not know how much or why.
By the time I have gotten around to writing this, the actual physical cd will be available to buy. It is a limited edition and yet again like an idiot I could not pre-order one. Living is far too expensive and music...well I now define it as a luxury maybe there will be some physical copies left I hope.
Santa Sprees are a band I really wish I had heard before now. The reverse sleeve has all 43 track titles listed in white on black, the front sleeve looks like lines of teeth or fingernails in various tones with what could be lines of scripture. I looked closer discovering it’s the title written with a fountain pen?
It was listened to heavily straight away, which may have been a stupid move....maybe listen to it in two sittings. This had its own dilemmas whilst burning it to disc. What did I not include? What tracks would be ignored? This I could not do as the choosing would lessen the impact, affect the art of music to the extent of how the album is heard. It runs for nearly an hour and half or something extraordinary alike...please do not fear either the running time nor the amount of tracks. Please embrace it in its wholeness. A word of warning though I have found it hard to try and dance to this, it's impossible, the effects are like taking drugs...well, I only take anti-depressants but you become altered almost asked to climb into this audio journey for the whole running time...you may wish to stop half way through or just do it in stages This kaleidoscopic work of intense avant-garde beauty is bizarre and strange whilst being breathtakingly glorious cementing this as a future underground lo-fi indie epic.
If you seek escapism from mundanity and dullness, I highly recommend this. Essentially needing to be heard and adored with the rapid inferno of quirkiness that swims throughout. Okay yes, it's bonkers, busy with all the instruments played, losing count as the album continues but there is also a childlike innocence in its playfulness. Accordion? Piano, drums, keyboards, recorders, bongos sometimes detuned guitars, spoken word not all at once though; subtle wailing noises of various frequencies underneath other instrumentation, calming yet restless noises, bleeps, hypnotic hooks, soulful, too with intermittent wonderful backing vocals.
The breadth and scope is vast. Easiest way to imagine is Bright Eyes /East River Pipe being fed on a diet of Olivia Tremor Control /Looper, Young Marble Giants /Moldy Peaches/Bonzo Dog/Belle & Sebastian /Polyphonic Spree even...to say the frames on the track lets go back to normal. A little glam in places with beautiful harmonies, arrangements, then I suppose you're halfway there to what Santa Sprees sound like but trying to write something simple is not always that easy. By track 16, you may start to lose your mind/reality well that’s how far I got earlier on today. It's 20:18 my head's blagged and you know I am happy in this beautiful auditory madness unable to recall where I last listened to an album that becomes wonderfully hard to define as a pinpointed ‘genre’. I am also sat cross-legged bopping away, losing myself with a freak out dance.
Vocals are certainly distinct you will either like them or not....like say Bob Dylan or Neil Young that’s where the comparisons end...they sound nothing alike yet it’s a sheer unique vocalization one that can only be described as sort of Conor Oberest meets the guy from East River Pipe say maybe in the Mel album period. I will shut up now. Buy it, play it love it, fall into the madness that is Santa Sprees. Oh now yes you can buy a cd version of it now I intend to do that when I get my bank sorted out...still overdrawn.
The Highlights of this album are many I would choose some but my head is seriously gone listening to this in a good way. The world needs this band.
a lovely off-kilter vision of the universe
Santa Sprees' "debut" album, or at least first widely available standalone recording that's not a compilation, finds the duo inhabiting a gentle, understated realm that teeters on the verge of sticky preciousness but avoids it more often than not. If Dolphin's singing can best get described as amiably nerdish (Marshall in comparison has much more relative control), it hasn't stopped many similar forebears. As a whole, Keep Still provides a gentle peek into a world which fans of Jad Fair, Daniel Johnston, and late-'80s Shimmy Disc will appreciate. That "Making a Row Man" has a very "Sweet Jane"-influenced guitar line really shouldn't be a surprise at all in that context. Seven years into their musical career, the duo has a lovely off-kilter vision of the universe to share with low-key guitar pop and synth ditties, and it does so well. Song titles like "Alcoholic Gunslingers Are Cool" and "Fireworks for Guido" seem to only suggest bad comedy bands, but the delivery is one of playful fun with hints of melancholy rather than forced yuks. Meanwhile, there's some honestly entrancing music at many points, which goes against the usual stereotype of shambling indie scruffiness. "Petrified" rides a drony wash of guitar, which suggests the Cure as much as it does, say, the Wedding Present in a less propulsive moment. The use of cheap and cheery organ on many tracks makes for good fun -- it's not the same way that the Young Marble Giants use it, but there's a similar appreciation at play. It's not clear who contributes what to the recording based on the credits, but the three Japanese musicians helping out Dolphin and Marshall slot right into the overall Santa Sprees aesthetic without a worry. Still, some of the instrumental fragments could be retired.
strangely enjoyable
While listening to ‘Sum Total of Insolent Blank’, the new album by Santa Sprees, I am reminded of a conversation I had with a friend a few weeks ago. We were talking about the latest P!nk and Justin Bieber albums. I said that I’d rather either listen to an album that didn’t work but tried to some something interesting over a boring one. Sadly, both P!nk and Bieber albums were dull which made them somehow worse than if they’d gone for something that just didn’t work. So, what does this have to do with Anthony & Kazuko Dolphin’s latest album? The answer is simple, the ‘Sum Total of Insolent Blank’ really tries to do something different, which is commendable but sadly fails at the final hurdle.
There is a touch of the Residents, Pere Ubu and Victor Banana about it. Playful pop sensibilities are underpinned by ad hoc melodies, wonky guitars, and falsetto vocals. The albums works best when it doesn’t feel like a drawn-out story with a slightly confusing punchline. The title track, ‘I Stuck Gold’, ‘The Little Ones Were Made of Pipe Cleaners and Felt’ and ‘Inconvenient Ruth’ work and are a pleasure to listen to. But songs like ‘We Drew Lots’ come across as tedious, at best. The main riff isn’t as strong as on other songs, and the vocals don’t work as well too, giving everything a grating feeling.
While listening to ‘Sum Total of Insolent Blank’ it’s very clear that the Dolphin’s have a sense of humour. Just read some of the track names: ‘How You Butcher Fish Finger?’, ‘The Home Help Won’t Help’, ‘I Met the Man Who Milked the Cows on Malted Milk’, ‘Inconvenient Ruth’, 'Tear Blades Grass Blades Longways’ and ‘Whatever it Takes (Apart from That)’ offer a slight explanation to the ramshackle lyrics throughout.
At its heart, ‘Sum Total of Insolent Blank’ is a frustrating album. There are some incredible moments in there, but they are followed by moments of mediocrity. It’s infuriating how good parts of this sound. ‘Everything’s Still Normal (In Space)’ could be the most focused track on the album. The fuzzy bass and harmonies work well. Around the halfway mark a sample from Trump talking about space grounds the organised cacophony in the real world. You now get a sense of why they’re angry. The inclusion of the sample is a masterstroke, but it also shows up the weaker tracks on the album.
At 90 minutes ‘Sum Total of Insolent Blank’ is a long album. Longer than it really has any right to be. While it’s interesting to hear all the tracks assembled for this album, at least a third of the songs could easily have been omitted to create a more cohesive listening experience.
After playing ‘Sum Total of Insolent Blank’ for the third time I am no nearer to finding out what it is about. I don’t think that the Dolphins do either. That’s kind of the point though. For all the excess tracks, confusing lyrics, and sense of cluttered compositions ‘Sum Total of Insolent Blank’ is a strangely enjoyable listen. This isn’t a classic album, or at times a good one, but there is something about it that keeps pulling me back in. As the closing track, ‘The Home Help Won’t Help’ ends and I start the cycle again I know that this isn’t going to be the last time I play this album. (Nick Roseblade, Vital Music Weekly)
plain bizarre to
blindingly brilliant
Santa Sprees are Anthony Dolphin and Katherine Marshall who hail from Japan and what they have produced for us here is a CD of 24 truly unique pop tracks. The word 'lo-fi' has been used to describe this album and they aren't kidding - It all sounds very amateurish, but don't let that fool you! The titles of the tracks are great, with the likes of 'Alcoholic Gunslingers Are Cool', 'Pockets of Snow', '240 Volts of Home Fire' and 'Kitten come home'. The songs do take a little getting used to, with warped vocals and a delightful instrumental backing, but they do become quite addictive the more you listen. The music itself does sound ever so simple and varies between the plain bizarre to the blindingly brilliant. At times, there is a hint of the Beach Boys sound, but otherwise it's an album of good, clean, simple perfect pop, crazy in places but nevertheless a joy to listen to. (Liam, Modern Dance Magazine Issue 41)
extraordinary
Feeling proud of one-time Buckfastleigh residents Santa Sprees for having made one of the most extraordinary, and best, albums of 2020. It's got Beefheart, T Rex, Beach Boys, Fire Engines, Pere Ubu, John Cage and all sorts of goodness combined into one. I think it's great.. (Phil Wilson, The June Brides)
undoubtedly cool
And here comes the new album by London label Dreamy Records. Santa Sprees, Anthony Dolphin and Katherine Marshall, returning from exile in Japan after their appearance on the compilation "Head in the Clouds" (Dreamy 1999), seduce us with their pop pills on their new LP "Keep Still". With no fewer than 24 songs performed in just over an hour, "Keep Still" contains minimalist, noisy but fresh experiments which reach their sharpest point on "Umarekawaru" or the electrical rhythms and incendiary fizz of "240 Volts of Home Fire". "Keep Still" is an undoubtedly cool disc, where the sweet sounding organs of "Alcoholic Gunslinger Are Cool" are reminiscent of other primitive experimenters like Tramway pop. Santa Sprees not only show us their almost ecclesiastical bodies, but also introduce us to noisy environments, dominated by electric riffs and rhythmic textures up against caustic trash, as heard in "Petrified " or "Making a Row Man" , or the joyous choruses of "Late Teens in the Clinic", one of the best songs on the LP, or relaxing with the flirtations dreampop harmonica of "Pockets of Snow". A brilliant display. (Popchild)
primitive
For some, "twee" and "primitive" are appellations to avoid. For others they prove badges of honor, and such is the case with England's Santa Sprees. Made up of couple Anthony Dolphin and Katherine Marshall, the duo more or less came into being in 1994 thanks to a basic keyboard and their enthusiastic efforts in making songs out of it. From there a slew of self-released cassettes resulted, which combines a variety of instruments in the mix, including kazoo, harmonica, and, according to the band, "percussive lemons" and 5-string guitar with "Santa Sprees tuning." An initial compilation, Take in the Corn With Santa Sprees, appeared in 1995, followed in later years by The Current Mind Of... and Emotional Racket. Dolphin and Marshall decamped to Greece towards the end of the '90s, followed by Tokyo, where they recorded their first formally released CD, Keep Still. (Ned Raggett, All Music Guide)
answers
Various Artists | A Wish On A Star (Dreamy)
Maintaining the kitsch, whimsical visual aesthetic of the first Dreamy compilation, ‘Head In The Clouds’, this second instalment in a series as irregular as its contributors, seems to boast an open-house policy, such is its diversity. Usual Dreamy suspects Graham, (The Real) Tuesday Weld, Jamie Owen and arco all appear and all are in fine form each contributing exclusive new material, as do oddball ex-pats Santa Sprees who feature twice. Other homegrown talents include Broken Dog, Silver Springs and Stars on the Water who, between them, set up some kind of template for the collection – lilting pop, prone to bouts of lo-fi weirdness and moments of beauty. CwaS favourite M. Ward donates the previously unreleased I’ll Be Yr Bird, three minutes of lo-fi blues bliss; Magnetic Fields alumni Dudley Klute and Flare bring some melodrama (the former deconstructing The Pixies’ Caribou); whilst Summer Hymns and Cole Marquis donate highlights from their respective current platters – Marquis’ Criminal particularly worthy of another hearing. As with most compilations, ‘A Wish On A Star’ reflects the tastes of its compiler, and will likely be dipped into and skipped through by those in search of answers to their own wishes. (Chris Wick)
demented
Santa Sprees produce wonderfully demented pop.(Bucketful Of Brains)
irregular
A music of bright and irregular genius.
(2-4-7 Music)
rare
Brilliant. The few hears it takes to fall in love are life's beautiful moments. Rare, so very rare.(DDDD)
eccentric
Charmingly rustic collection of eccentric oddities. Intermittently lo of fi, consistently high of quality. Necessary or evil? Packed with frayed fragments of pop, the likes of which you simply won't be able to find anywhere else; precious, pretentious or just plain bizarre, it's all here. Izumi Misawa's sprawling "Meet Me At The Brilliant Eclipse" is a standout, as are appearances by arco, Santa Sprees, White Hotel and The Autumn Leaves. Plenty of diamonds among this debris. (Stevie Chick, NME)
great
A 20-track sampler of the tiny British singles label, aimed at attracting finance to make albums. From the deliciously outre pop of arco (20,000 ft) to Farina's sublimely melancholic lament to former glories (Twilight Of The Empire), this is almost universally great stuff. Other highlights include Izumi Misawa's kitsch keyboard-fest Meet Me At The Brilliant Eclipse and Jaques featuring Kirk Lake's whimsical You Don't Get It Now But You Will. Someone give Dreamy money now, please. **** (David Sheppard, Q Magazine, Sept 1999)
cool stuff
I drag my feet on CNQ. I feel like Bandcamp has gotten pretty good with Bandcamp Daily. There's a few weekly or monthly mixes via either Spotify or Mixcloud that are better than the occasional comp I'll post, and they have a bigger reach. And there are various freeform radio shows that are now available via the Internet. So, as I've been wondering for a few years now, what am I doing here, exactly? The last time I wondered this aloud in a blog post, I thought oh, to set CNQ apart, to do something different, I'll talk about video games, or books or comics, or even politics, or maybe try to move the acrylics I was cranking out last year. But nah. I like to write, I really do. From when I was a kid all up thru my twenties I wanted to be a writer. I finally realized I don't have the patience. To paraphrase Bob Pollard, all I really wanna do is drink, and rock.
But here recently I was exposed to Santa Sprees and my desire to post was reinvigorated. So let's get down to it. Santa Sprees is an Anglo-Japanese primitive avant-bubblegum duo, and their new 43 track album "Sum Total of Insolent Blank," is a must-listen. It's 90 plus minutes so it is a time investment, but very well worth it. You can get all three albums for a little over $8 USD, and the first 50 purchases of "Sum Total of Insolent Blank" get art from Anthony Dolphin, and a song dedicated to them. Cool stuff. (Matt Griffin, Clean Nice Quiet)
un vaste terrain
Pour Santa Sprees alias Anthony et Kazuko Dolphin, la musique est un vaste terrain de jeu à l’intérieur duquel le duo se meut en toute liberté. Sum Total Of Insolent Blank voit The Residents croiser l’épée avec Père Ubu, glissant sur les pages blanches d’un testament Dada pop.
Les 43 titres sont chargés d’érudition musicale et d’attitude artistique, cousins éloignés d’un Achwghâ Ney Wodei soudain devenu gendre idéal au bras de Daniel Johnston. Santa Sprees balance ses comptines sur des des débris de roches arty, mélodies infestées de psychédélisme coupant comme le verre, prêtes à détaler sur des terrains caillouteux et faire exploser sur son passage, les carcans de la liberté. Jouissif. (Roland Torres, Silence & Sound)
must hear at all costs
The level of aural anticipation inspired by – for example – Blokeacola, Vinna Bee The Apiary, the Flying Pyjamas, UCNT and Santa Sprees (who, according to their own Bandcamp page have been ‘advancing the art of unpopular song since 1994’, so where have I been all their lives?) whose title ‘Nothing Says You Care Like Hand Picked Emoji’ immediately elevates it to the level of ‘must hear at all costs’ – is very high indeed. (Tony Rounce, Loud Women)
fantastic
Tokyo duo Anthony Dolphin and Katherine Marshall showcase their songwriting eccentricities across the two dozen songs contained in Keep Still. While Daniel Johnston comes to mind in the childish play of these songs, a mental condition fails to provide a digestible context. Lo-fi pop antics force us to grasp at the straws of an Elephant 6 stable comparison, though an accurate description of Keep Still is far more elusive. Strummy guitars and keys lost in tape hiss have more charm than the whole of the jap-pop scene that I’ve witnessed. Fantastic. (Dreamy POB 30427 London NW6 3FF, promo@dreamyrecords.com) (Keith York, Silver Girl, Mode Reviews)
no chance of commercial success
This band and their two intriguing tapes were always up for grabs for further 'production steps' to initiate a release on Scout. It failed because we have a pre-funded and first royalties offset studio policy and because,in spite of the very sexy ultra lo-fi DIY nature of the promotion tapes it had no chance of commercial success or even to break-even. Although the lo-fi aesthetics fit very well with the spirit of the times (Guided by Voices, Daniel Johnston, K Records , etc) the original recordings in their difficult-to-consume roughness and without a direct target audience would have needed a very solid production and promotion. I have read the correspondence with the band again and believe the failure to complete the project lay in the problems of finding a suitable, affordable studio in or near London. Along with the reluctance of the two protagonists to take a more professional way. This was camouflaged by their voiced fears about their originality and authenticity...well now I did not have Phil Spector in mind as a producer. To my great surprise, I found a comprehensive background report on the band and an interview with Santa sprees in the online magazine Crud Magazine. There I learned they made an album in 2000 on the very fine English Dreamy label. This CD contains only a few tracks from the promo tape. In addition, there are two or three YouTube clips (particularly Vinegar In Amsterdam) which one would expect to earn an audition. This track sounds so much like the kind of production that WE and actually had in mind at that time. (Scout Records)
rowdy, silly and downright cool
I Dream Of Indie - Dreamy Records' Unlikely Mogul: Tracy Lee Jackson, record mogul (who heads up a team of, well, one, actually) at Dreamy Records, arrives for a chat bearing a box of Lindt chocolate bears. Surely I can't accept them, this is clearly a bribe! 'Oh no,' she shrugs in a reassuring Californian drawl, 'this is a present. I always give people presents when I meet them. I gave Sebadoh all these funny little things -I don't know if they knew what to make of them.' This is a woman who put on a special live night for her label at the Notting Hill Arts Club recently, for which the ticket included live music and French maids serving chocolate-filled baguettes and hot chocolate drinks. 'Chocolate and red wine, they're my two favourite things,' she says, as if this explains the company philosophy. Hurrah.
Swedish pop band The Cardigans may have hijacked a perfectly good item of indie clothing and turned it into a synonym for Garbage-style, MTV rock, but the spirit of indie can't be quelled so easily. No! Tracy Lee Jackson is living proof that you don't need a distribution deal with an international corporation to get the records you love out to the good listening public... even if it does mean selling your car to pay for an EP.
Dreamy Records is two EPs, one album and one compilation old. Jackson, who had worked at independent record companies Ryko and Blue Rose, started it as a means of getting records out without the lengthy process of waiting for approval, development meetings etc; if a song sounded great, why couldn't it go straight on record? The band who first roused her to action were Arco. Their demo was one of the many Jackson had snaffled from the endless dunes of tapes sent in to record company offices every week. They sounded good (ambient indie pop, ifyou will) and the address on the tape was only a couple of roads away from her in Ealing, so she invited them out for a drink and a chat. It might not seem quite as high-powered as flying your client to Paris for lunch and a spot of schmoozing, but it was enough encouragement for Arco, one songwriter called Chris Healey, to lure his brother and a friend into getting a gigging band together.
Their first EP, 'Longsighted', which came out last autumn, was the first product of Tracy's labour of love. She decided to call the label Dreamy after a conversation with a friend who worked at Creation Records. She was trying to describe what the music would probably sound like, and when her list of adjectives got to 'dreamy', she stopped.
The recently released compilation, 'Head In the Clouds', is basically Jackson's dream come true: 20 tracks from her favourite bands and artists, many of which she picked up on from the same pile of demos. Izumi Misawa works and lives in Japan and coos sweetly over music that can only be described as a probable soundtrack to a 1930s cartoon interpretation of the inside of Tom Waits' head that breaks into classical string flurries from nowhere. Kirk Lake and The Autumn Leaves are artists Tracy was just a fan of and who kindly agreed to contribute to this scrapbook of hers, as was songwriter Chris Starling, who is just beginning to come out of performance hibernation. Then there's Santa Sprees, whose 'I Wish I'd Been An Extra In Dawn Of The Dead' is as rowdy, silly and downright cool as it sounds. 'Oh, they're teaching in Japan now,' Jackson tells me. And that's just it, some of these acts are stars in the ascendant, others are just people who made a good sound and were happy to have it committed to record for posterity. Indeed, when you meet the chairwoman of the board at Dreamy Records (you can't miss her, she's at every gig in town), there's a visible joy in the knowledge that someone, somewhere is writing a great song at that very moment.Not all the bands on the collection are 'signed' to Dreamy, but many of them are playing this year's Terrastock festival. Terrastock's two previous indie binges have been in America, but Tracy has persuaded the organisers to bring this celebration of all things alternative to London's ULU for August 27 to 29. She has no financial interest in it; it's enough for her that this legendary event is coming to her adopted hometown. When it comes to evangelism, Tracy Lee Jackson is the Billy Graham of Alternative. (Laura Lee Davies, Time Out magazine, Music Preview section 28/7/99).
comparison
Disc Two similarly kicks off with two instrumentals before the first of only two vocal tracks, 1997’s Big White Limo by The Gerbils, a lo-fi pop romp like Santa Sprees without degrees. (Matt Dornan CWAS)
... heavy, xylophone-friendly track that is reminiscent of the likes of Santa Sprees in its delightfully off-kilter feel ...(Fortuna Pop)
especially quirky
Dreamy is a London-based record label that specializes in the softer, more quirky side of pop music from the UK. On this, their second compilation, they manage to attract a wide array of artists from the US and the UK and put together a nicely flowing, playful, charming group of 20 songs.
Some of the Dreamy artists are well represented here. (The Real) Tuesday Weld provides a quirky, 50s movie soundtrack piece complete with plenty of sampling to kick off the album and closes with “The Birds + The Bees,” much more along his usual lines with his deep, throaty vocals and light, up-beat tune. The especially quirky Santa Sprees does two songs. “Back in Yr Pram” settles down into a nice, simple, kind of quiet bit of Brit-pop after an especially annoying start, and “Make Room,” for all it’s weird backing “I’ll make” vocals, is a nice pop song as well. Graham’s “Jezebel Blue” is another piece of gorgeous, piano-focused soft pop from this artist with the amazing voice. A bit more upbeat than their usual material, “Stream” by Arco is still very quiet and peaceful.
The other artists fit right in, offering quiet, sweet pop songs for the most part. M. Ward (of Giant Sand) contributes a quiet, singer/songwriter acoustic pop song called “I’ll Be Yr Bird,” and there’s a hint of a country-ish, Neil Young style folk twinge to the harmonica-laden “I’ll Think of it Today” by Broken Dog. More lovely, soft, orchestrated pop from Flare, as “Some Words on Parting” is a very quiet track from those boys. Saxophone lends a dreamy quality to the very quiet “Some Breezes” by Jamie Owen, and rivulets’ “Swans” is a minimalistic, slow-core affair that somehow strikes me every time I hear it. It reminds me vaguely of American Football.
Organ lends a European flare to Ursula’s “Mi Ilegada,” and Summer Hymns have a nice, light, folksy pop approach on “Trolling on the Lake.” Things pick up with “Kings Parade” by S. Hotel, a lovely, sultry 40s style pop song with gorgeous female vocals, and The Witch Hazel Sound’s “The Man Who Invented California” is a lovely retro-influenced pop song. I find myself getting more into the quiet sentiment of Stars on the Water’s “Making Up is Hard to Do” with each listen.
The only fault I have with this compilation is that many of the artists sound fairly interchangeable. The music, especially in the middle here, tends to sound very similar: quiet, acoustic, sweet. A few more unique acts to space things out would have been nice. But overall, these are some fantastic songs, and this album will help you wile away the time without even knowing it.(Adequacy Net)
charming
A charming, intelligent album.(PennyBlack Music)
seriously cool
Seriously cool, kooky, scuzzy pop.(PennyBlack Music)
bright
A manifesto for a bright and shiny future.(PinkTink)
mad people
Keep Still is a magnum opus. 24 tracks of lo-fi genius. You've got to hand it to mad people, they make brilliant music .(Angelfire)
Honestly, I think it's fine the way it is. Want to get the other tape does not even post ( lechz ) ? Gulliver (Scout)
I'm glad you like the tape Gulliver . If you still get one / two more questions , then I 'll post it . Otherwise, I bring YOU the cassette at the next meeting with a loan ;- )