Immersive. Beautiful. Everything you could want from a 180grm black vinyl LP.

It may be said that there are two types of listeners in this world – those who appreciate music as an experience on any level, and those who are there to suck it up like a sponge and steal everything they possibly can. 

The artist therefore, must be the latter. The Artist craves inspiration more than anything else and recognises a rich source when they cross it. This is why artists like the Brian Jonestown Massacre’s Anton Newcombe hold a reverence chiefly amongst other artists, because you can feel that what you’re listening to here is somehow, close to the source.

It’s what bonafide legends are made of; you can hear it in that incredible 4-year run that was the Doors, or the poetry of Lou Reed, or what Dylan did to the youth of the 60’s when shook the snow-globe upside down with 1965’s Bring it All Back Home. Poets, renegades, messengers, subverters: Some things are just bigger.
Inspiration is where mankind taps into and for a brief time channels, that infinite, divine spark of creation; that very reason why the entire universe is something rather than nothing; the illusive universal super-intelligence, that is so far beyond and yet all around us.

There are others however, that despite hitting that divine spark, never manage to ride the wave all the way to the shore. These are the hidden gems that make their mark on the world by influencing other, usually less vivid artists – who can manage to tow the line of the big ugly music business, navigate fate and not get in their own way long enough to be remembered.

The hidden gems though, are food for the creative soul. Records that inspire, infest the mind and ignite action (See CAN – Ege Bamyasi, who invented the 90’s Manchester groove, but in the early 70’s. Or Rocky Ericsson. Or Townes Van Zandt. Or Refused – The Shape of Punk to Come).

Anton Newcombe is, ironically, probably more famous for not catching his wave – Not ‘making it’, or not ‘selling out’, depending how you see it. Such is the focus of the 2004 Ondi Timoner documentary film ’Dig!’ The Dandy Warholes vs The Brian Jonestown Massacre. If you’ve not watched it, go and see it, now.

The point here is that whether The Brian Jonestown Massacre deserve the respect and appreciation of millions of adoring fans is kind of irrelevant. They’re already much more than that- they’re already in the elite company of the hidden gems department. And like it or not, choose it or not, Anton Newcombe is close to the source. Tortured by it even.

‘Fire Doesn’t Grow On Trees’ is the new record and it’s all there. Artists will lap it up, even if only once. I won’t describe it track by track because you’re either intrigued already or not. 
But it is beautiful. And it’s a great Brian Jonestown Massacre record. It’s not even about originality at this point, as after ~30 records you could never accuse Anton of that; but if you want to hear what it is to capture someone’s soul on a record and how to craft songs that transcend, that make you feel like we do, that pick you up and take you somewhere else… then this is a masterclass.

5/5

For fans of:
The Velvet Underground
The Beatles
Yo La Tengo
The Rolling Stones
Oasis

Scott Massey
#MusicSceneWales
@MusicSceneWales
musicscenewalescymru@gmail.com