In my wilderness years where I was almost entirely out of touch with much in the way of contemporary music, I'd often find myself wandering around Glasgow and spotting that Y'all Is Fantasy Island were playing somewhere - everywhere in fact, as they popped up in every corner of the city at seemingly regular intervals. I often thought to myself it was a ridiculous name for a band, but a strangely intriguing one too. Somehow it stuck in my mind and I resolved one day to follow up on the instinct and check them out. Indeed a couple of years later I finally found myself devouring their albums and hoping I got to see them play at some point. I never managed to, as the band unfortunately went on indefinite hiatus somewhere along the line and finally, quietly announced their demise during 2010. Aside from some instrumental work for films, this is the first solo record proper by Adam Stafford - the songwriter-in-chief and creative force behind almost all of YiFI's rather fine back catalogue. Again though, I approached this with perhaps a little trepidation - some of Stafford's output in the interim has been challengingly experimental or downright contrary - part of what attracts me to his music I'm sure in some ways, but not always an easy listen by any standard. However what hooked me into YiFI over and over again was his ability to deliver strange, sometimes complicated stories in the space of a song, and "Build A Harbour Immediately" is full of those moments.
The first hint of how this album might sound came with "Fire & Theft" which was perhaps an impossibly easy choice for the single with its infectious, joyous pop and sinister undertones. In many ways this is the most YiFI-like track of the entire album too, with it's nagging, echo laden guitar hook running throughout. Touches of apocalyptic paranoia flit through the lyrics, sung in the weirdly chipper tone of the genuine fanatic, and topped with a curious sing-song chorus at the song's ending. It's a weirdly happy song which hints at underlying doubt and fear with it's "steely voice to whip your bones" a clue about what's to come perhaps? Meanwhile, "Cathedrals" is a gentler paced rumination on time, change and the complexities of relationships, taking a fairly oblique and perhaps longer view than the average throwaway love song. A duet of sorts, the complicated guitar parts are gently embellished with strings, which build towards a portentous but restrained ending. True to the track's name, it's hard not to envisage lofty ceilings, skyward swooping buttresses and shafts of light through stained glass with the atmosphere created here, while Stafford's voice occasionally drops to a low growl here before soaring to impossible heights in the chorus.
I remember an earlier version of "Police No Speech" surfacing on a compilation which was stark and empty, with Stafford's voice unnervingly close to your ear. This version is sweetened somewhat by background flashes of steel guitar and a female vocal foil, but it retains the sense of unease in it's genuinely disturbing lyric. The incongruence is disquietening, with the melancholy but delicate tune playing on as an uncertain but unspecifically horrifying tale unfolds - a break into a home by family members, grooming, burn marks on the stairlift, the smell of death and lilies. Just enough detail to make things uncomfortable, but not enough to sate curiousity - and here, in the techniques which deliver the spine-tingling chill of the best mysteries, Stafford's literary qualities shine through. Thinking back to some of the experimental post-YiFI work, much of this centred on Stafford experimenting with using his voice as the sole instrument. "Shot Down You Summer Wannabes" harks back to this having been a free single release a while back, and is entirely constructed from vocal loops with the addition of a strangely soulful lead vocal. It's a neat trick perhaps, because if this epic, almost-gospel piece had been recorded with traditional rock band instruments, it would have been all too easy to end up with an overblown and cloying outcome. Instead we have a fragile, strange and engaging song. The soul undertones persist into "Step Up, Raise Hands" which is one of those songs which should be a chart-topping hit in another universe. It's a surprisingly straightforward, but encouragingly low budget Motown stomp - but even here among exhortations to "dance like you're born again" there are the dark edges which mark Stafford's often baleful presence as he threatens to "force my face into the crotch of the monograph". A shredding guitar solo utterly defies the soul element for a moment, and I'm again struck by the joy of Adam's singing - his voice much more assured given the space and stylistic variation of these songs. This is absurdly catchy, instantly memorable pop music. It probably wasn't quite what I was expecting, but I'm damn glad it's here!
"Build A Harbour Immediately" drifts in with delicate, duelling guitar melodies - one on target, the other out of focus and off-key. Stafford adopts a Dylanesque drawl here, which is then manipulated and twisted to become am eerie moan. Meanwhile an operatic backing vocal keens and soars before receiving the same distorting treatment. It's a strange parody of prettiness - an uneasy form given to familiar elements. Likewise, it makes virtually no sense at all to describe something as an 'acapella instrumemtal' but that's exactly what "Frederick Wiseman" is. On the surface, just a shimmering chorus of looped backing voices, doubling and building until a swooning lead vocal soars over the backdrop. Eventually the voice falls away, leaving the chattering loops to decay into sinister whispers, which remind me of the highly dubious Electronic Voice Phenomena that all the best ghost hunters claim to receive. Not for the first time on my eerily quiet morning train I find myself looking over my shoulder down the empty carriage. The preponderance of the word 'crystal' in band and song names just now is odd, but here it is saved to appropriately describe the epic closing soundscape of "A Vast Crystal Skull". Issued in with a suitably shimmering, brittle opening things develop with a cinematic, road movie sweep. I first heard this track on a slightly miserable tilting run up the Clyde valley, with dark skies with fast moving silver clouds casting shadows on the valley floor provided curiously fitting scenes. Given space and freedom again here, Stafford's voice dips and soars, arcing over the atmospherics, most particularly the uplifting sweeps of slide guitar which spiral skywards.
The revelation across all of these varied and complex songs is Stafford's mutable, often powerful and hugely versatile voice. in the confines of YiFI it seems Adam often had a little less space to explore this, as he was forced to up the pace to match the harder-edged sound they began to develop, losing some of the finer vocal qualities. However, on "Build A Harbour Immediately" it's given free rein to twist oddly, whisper strangely - and sometimes to just belt out a soulful tune. This collection of songs is almost disconcertingly diverse, often lyrical and packed tight with ideas which threaten to burst out of the songs which contain them. Close to some of his finest work here, Stafford is a remarkable songwriter capable of delivering chillingly observed and sometimes far from easy-to-digest stories, whether in the shape of tight, literate pop music or the more expansive and experimental elements he employs. I get a feeling that this going to be one of those releases which ends up all over the end-of-year lists.
"Build A Harbour Immediately" is available as a digital release and a limited edition yellow tape now from Wiseblood Industries. It will receive it's official launch on 20th August at Stereo in Glasgow, alongside Paws, Miaoux Miaoux and Mondegreen at "Ayetunes vs. Peenko 4 - The Revenge". You can also find the entirety of YiFI's output in a single download costing absolutely nothing here.
Adam Stafford - Police No Speech
Lost::MikeGTN
I've had a home on the web for more years than I care to remember, and a few kind souls persuade me it's worth persisting with keeping it updated. This current incarnation of the site is centred around the blog posts which began back in 1999 as 'the daylog' and continued through my travels and tribulations during the following years.
I don't get out and about nearly as much these days, but I do try to record significant events and trips for posterity. You may also have arrived here by following the trail to my former music blog Songs Heard On Fast Trains. That content is preserved here too.
