{"title":"Penny Arcade","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"backwater-collage-2","title":"Backwater Collage","description":"\u003cp\u003eHailing from a place of ancient mariners' secret coves and vast moors beaten by the wind and rain, \u003cem\u003eBackwater Collage\u003c\/em\u003e is \u003cstrong\u003eJames Hoare's\u003c\/strong\u003e first solo album under the name of Penny Arcade.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eDespite leaving London for the West country he grew up in, the Englishman is no stranger to the scene. He has been wandering around as if awakened from a long, not-so-peaceful sleep for some time now. You have most probably come across his washed-out blue eyes several times, in projects including Veronica Falls, The Proper Ornaments, and Ultimate Painting.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eFor this dreamy, hand-stitched record, Hoare has taken his time. Maybe because he had to rescue his songs from various recording sessions tinged with a number of mishaps he amusedly admits he is accustomed to: broken multitracks, failing tape machines, rarely available drummers living in the capital.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe eleven intimate and solitary songs which make up the album, delivered in the greatest home recording tradition, are nonetheless cautiously produced. James unfurls pure, uncluttered melodies in which his gentle, melancholic voice mingles with smooth, warm vocals by Nathalia Bruno. Barely saturated guitar solos sometimes disrupt the clear, unpolished musical line.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eHopping onboard, longtime friend Max Claps has added keyboard parts which manage to embrace the minimal nostalgia of the tracks while preventing any teary pathos. Similar to Jack Name or Syd Barrett – only less psychedelic – in terms of songwriting and stripped back atmosphere, Hoare is sitting on the Velvet Underground's black-and-white sofa and gives his album a subterranean feel.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eAt times restless but light-footed, deprived of any unnecessary effects, the record follows in the steps of a less noisy but just as raw and unadorned Jesus and Mary Chain. With \u003cem\u003eBackwater Collage\u003c\/em\u003e, alone at the helm under a stormy sky, \u003cstrong\u003eJames Hoare\u003c\/strong\u003e invites his listeners to settle in the sheltered comfort of a cup of tea.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"No Label","offers":[{"title":"Yellow LP","offer_id":50412967100747,"sku":"2176410","price":31.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"Black LP","offer_id":50412966674763,"sku":"2176409","price":30.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"CD","offer_id":50412965626187,"sku":"2176408","price":17.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/image007_e2e1f005_thumbnail_4096.jpg?v=1726670012"},{"product_id":"double-exposure-1","title":"Double Exposure","description":"\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cem\u003eDouble Exposure \u003c\/em\u003eisn’t a departure, necessarily, but this new album contains some of the rawest and most deconstructed sounds that James Hoare – of Veronica Falls, Ultimate Painting and Proper Ornaments – has recorded to date. Principally, and for the first time, the guitars take a back seat. It’s not a ‘no guitar’ concept album by any means; it’s mostly just the way it came together. It would also be inaccurate to suggest the guitars have been banished altogether, especially after the dual six-string solo that rips through the speakers on the mighty album opener Regrets. It’s not ‘Skynyrd’ necessarily, but it’s a hairs-on-end experience for sure.\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003eFollowing 2024’s gorgeous \u003cem\u003eBackwater Collage\u003c\/em\u003e debut LP under the Penny Arcade nom de plume, this is a hallucinogenic experience, and the backbone of \u003cem\u003eDouble Exposure\u003c\/em\u003e is the drum machine that informed the songs. It’s also an album of sweet duality. For all the darkness of early highlight Worst Trip – a haunting stagger through “the worst trip I ever had” – the following You’ve Got the Key is a gorgeously knotty workout, so rich in a distinctly English take on psychedelia that it’s hard not to believe it was recorded to tape fifty years ago. The mood then swaps sunny psychedelics for a slice of blue-eyed soul on Everything’s Easy, the soundtrack to melancholic, sunshine-stained car journeys. The album features flashes of guest appearances, but for the vast majority it is an album of solo experimentalism, with gestations that bubble to life across the stereo before fading back out again. Nothing is overthought; this is an album of ideas.\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003eThe drum machines take centre stage on Rear View Mirror, playing out like In Rainbows-era Radiohead channelled through Silver Apples, a trip in three minutes that you can play on an infinite loop. Like so much of the album, it was recorded almost instantaneously, with a simplicity and rawness that heavy overdubs and meticulous arrangements could never achieve. It is an album high on vibe. James explains: “I was preparing to move to the south of France when half of the album was recorded. This fed into the lo-fi feel of the record; it had to be recorded quickly and that does give some of the tracks a demo-like quality.” When one of the album’s many highlights is a hazy two-minute cut called Instrumental No. 1, you know this is about rolling the tape and capturing the vibe.\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003eClicking drum machines and oozing organs interplay with different hues of guitar work, from the ragas of the George Harrison-esque Early Morning to the tripped-out, smoke-drenched We Used to Be Good Friends. \u003cem\u003eDouble Exposure\u003c\/em\u003e is an unfussy collection of songs. Closing track Riverside Drive – like so many of the album’s sublimely melancholic highs – appears, fully forms, then dissolves, never outstaying its welcome and softly ringing in the ears like a daydream. It is also a fitting title. \u003cem\u003eDouble Exposure\u003c\/em\u003e, named after the photographic technique, is layers of ideas that weren’t written as parts but rather spontaneous melodies that form their own abstract picture. The album harks somewhere between the restless experimentation of Syd Barrett and the uninhibited analogue innovations of Tim Presley as White Fence. It very much is what it is.\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e“The record was recorded on a 16-track tape machine, and much of it was captured instantaneously as it just sounded the way it needed right there and then,” James recalls. “Most of the songs feature old, very basic drum machines and organs; trying to recreate any aspect of it is like trying to bottle smoke.\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Tapete","offers":[{"title":"LP - Black","offer_id":56408739643723,"sku":"R4421-7770","price":29.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"CD","offer_id":56408739676491,"sku":"R4421-9020","price":16.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/TR607CD.jpg?v=1769603548"}],"url":"https:\/\/shop.roughtrade.com\/collections\/penny-arcade.oembed","provider":"Rough Trade","version":"1.0","type":"link"}