BELLS, BOOTS AND SHAMBLES

By the time of their third album , Spirogyra were down to a duo as both Cussack and Borril were listed as guests along with Dave Mattacks and others including a cellist. This third offering is a fine return to form compared to their poorer Old Boot Wine album. The inventivity of the tracks may actually exceed their St Radiguns album but the album is slitghly less even but no tracks are weak at all!

The Furthest Point is probably my fave track from them and the cello is put to excellent use to provide solemn and melancholic atmospheres that were so absent in the previous album. Old Boot Wine, Parallel Lines and Everyday Consumption song are typically great songs (Gaskin's vocals are crystal-clear) that makes this album great but might have helped the previous one especially the eponymous track. The Sergant Says is an almost goofy acid rock tune that just like the consumption track are very politically conscious. Spiggly , a filler here might habe been a highlight on the previous album , had it not be so short! The final tracks is the other highlight (in anotherwise very light-full album) with its 13 min mini-suite called Western World. It is divided into four parts and is full of great melancholic athmospheres that only a cello (besides the Mellotron absent here) can create. I cannot say whether they knew this would be their last track, but what a way to finish a band's Oeuvre - worthy of Starless in the Red album.

Very much recommended along with their debut. Gaskin will be the only one to have a well known carreer to progheads with her work with other locals (Spirogyra were from Canterbury) in Hatfield, National Health , Bruford and Stewart.