Although arguably better known in this part of the world for his work with The Adult Net and as ex-hubby of former Fall keyboard player Marcia Schofield, Prague-based PHIL SHOENFELT's more recent career is clearly overdue more widespread scrutiny.
Thus, the recent arrival of generous 2CD career overview "Deep Horizon" is timely. And the good news is that its' 27 tracks from the past 15 years - with liner notes from fellow cult hero Nikki Sudden - are top drawer quality all the way.
Your reviewer was only previously au fait with Shoenfelt's last studio album ("Ecstatic") and it's good to get re-acquainted with several of that record's strongest tracks once again on CD1. Of these, "Twisted" is mysterious, brooding but easily accessible guitar pop with fine, off-the-hip choruses; "Magdalena" is anthemic, swashbuckling and the kind of thing Ian McCulloch thinks he can still do and "Heaven And Hell" is full of expectant guitars, hints of mid-80s Julian Cope and likeably poppy and direct.
All of these are fine pieces of work, but equally good are songs like the insistent, motorik European chug of "Electric Garden", the spooked and dark "A Dialogue Between The Soul & Body" (Gothic, but not Goth if ever there was) and the violin-led, nocturnal delight that is "Dead Flowers For Alice." All of these benefit from the band's restrained playing and Shoenfelt's charismatic delivery - a heady, deep brown croon somewhere between Nick Cave and Iggy Pop - and when the gives his lyricism full poetic rein (like on the epic "Ballad Of Elijah Cain") he can also give the likes of Messrs. Cave, McLennan and McComb a run for their money.
CD2 finds the quality control every bit as stringent, opening with the fire'n'brimstone of the snarling with its' Roxy Music-style sax getting in on the act and shortly afterwards following up with a dead-eye rough'n'tumble through Robert Johnson's "Preachin' Blues". Admittedly, it's not quite as deadly as The Gun Club's magnificent version, but it's still impressive for all that.
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Elsewhere, Shoenfelt demonstrates his versatility further with "The Ghosts Of My Dead Lovers" (a baroque thing of beauty with weeping strings); the stark, late-night spiritual of "The Gambler" ("I'll take my chances playin' Russian roulette with my life") and the equally affecting and possibly autobiographical "Hospital", where Phil sings "I spent my 32nd year in this hospital of fools and sad-eyed killers" like someone who has been on drinking terms with the dark side on numerous occasions. Whether or not that's the truth, we can only speculate, but it's certainly a moving and memorable tune for all that.
But really, all of "Deep Horizon"s contents fill up a treasure chest waiting to be looted by the public at large. That its' jewels have only been displayed at smaller, select galleries thus far seems strange, but an opportunity always comes round to rectify such a situation and "Deep Horizon" would seem the obvious time to unveil Phil Shoenfelt on a far wider scale.
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