USE AND ORNAMENT

Jarrod Gosling is a chameleon of sorts when it comes to music. The man has been part of the Metal world, Electronic, Indie, Pop, Alternative and probably more. He's one half of the commercially successful I ROBOT, and part of a related band SKYWATCHERS. In 2013 he made a splash into our style of music with his first REGAL WORM offering "Use And Ornament" and also "Men Singing" by HENRY FOOL, a band he was asked to join. Lets just say Jarrod and his M400 mellotron got a good workout on these two albums.

And "Use And Ornament" is a mellotron album, with the 'tron on every track, and he uses all nine of the mellotron sounds on this album, a rare thing. He bought his mellotron in 2005, and it was originally owned by PALLAS. Gosling has a ton of analog equipment at his disposal, and that year he went crazy buying keyboard related stuff. Jarrod also plays bass, guitars, drums, recorder and on and on. He really doesn't need any help, but he has ten guests adding their talents. Two female singers and a male vocalist are included in this, but also violin, a lot of horns and more.

We get nine tracks over 61 minutes including a lot of short pieces complimented by the two 13 and 26 plus minute tracks. Gosling has a twisted sense of humour which you can see for yourself if you look at his discography here, with the track and album titles especially. That 26 plus minute piece is called "6:17PM The Aunt Turns Into An Ant" after death of course, as we get this dramatic story line of her entering her new life in the ant colony. The closer "Klara Till Slutet(Main Title Theme) is a short instrumental that is Zappa all the way.

The opener is a short 1 1/2 minute atmospheric piece that gets quite powerful. Followed by "Cherish That Rubber Rodent" that hits the ground running with good contrasts and chunky bass. The next three tracks are my favourites. "The Mardi Gras Turned Ugly In Seconds", "Apple Witch" and "Morning Sentinel". "Apple Witch" especially was an immediate favourite, while this album as a whole was a grower for me. It's just different I suppose, but man this is an album I highly recommend. Probably closer to 4.5 stars. I'm not sure if he can top this.

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