Wood and Waste

Wood and Waste is what used to be called a cult record - a set of warmly anarchic influences and timeworn qualities that is Tom Rodwell’s trademark. His songs resemble ragged short stories, cobbled-together genres from an alternate history. “The aim is to locate each song in a very specific room of its own, with contrasting feels like layers of paint or old wallpaper.”

The album’s centrepiece is She Got Me Boiling, a juggernaut of psychedelic calypso welded to mindless riffs on cannibalism that would make the Mighty Sparrow blush. Driven by a bass-heavy guitar pulse and animated carnival drums, it’s a fiendishly irresistible piece of music, as is the absurdist one-chord freak-out Touch Me Like a Teddybear, featuring NZ free improv notorieties Jeff Henderson and Chris O’Connor on drums. Improvisation is a key theme of Wood and Waste, where frequently a skeletal idea transforms into a fleshy dance rhythm.