Gobstopper

Centred round the songs of principal writer James Howard, Gobstopper represents an expansion of sound and a widening of subject. Recorded at London’s vital Total Refreshment Studio, this is an album rich in its production, every track exquisitely delivered with layers of harmony and instrumentation. Sung from inside the gluttonised belly of up-for-grabs capitalist Britain, swallowing up whatever is in its way: a jukebox on the coast, Soho square policemen and silent discos.

The record roams like a child on a sugar high turning over stones, sometimes finding compassion, sometimes the weird and beautiful, and sometimes just woodlice. Gobstopper narrates the poetic shift: observation and tellings on the experience, emotion when our gaze turns to that curious realm that exists between the day to day living, common need and the conditioned madness of the island of Great Britain. The cover art is painted by artist, Phillip Reeves, taking Mingus’ The Clown as its starting point.