Judging by the packaging, I'd assume that Paul Thomas Saunders is a fan of Gizeh records. Or perhaps is a Leeds thing. Like many of Gizeh's releases, there's a strong emphasis on presentation: heavy quality textured-finish paper bearing a stamp, or perhaps even a woodcut design print houses the CD. What' more, like Glissanso's 'Loves Are Like Empires,' it's sealed - by which I mean sealed with sealing wax - and stamped with the initials PTS. This immediately presents the hoarder and collector in me with a dilemma: to open the package, to hear what it has to offer, and in doing so damage its state of pristine newness (and also risk disappointment), or file it, untouched, unsullied, unheard?
Of course, I have a job to do, and that-s as a music reviewer, not a packaging reviewer (which is perhaps as well given the number of plain PVC wallets that come my way).
-Fruit of the Poisonous Tree' is pleasant enough, but then, so are so many acoustic folk-tinged numbers. I can't think of any other songs that use the word 'doolally,' though, especially not in the chorus, and while perhaps only for this reason, the song does stick in the mind.
'Starless State of the Moonless Barrow' is an intriguing composition, superficially a rather unremarkable acoustic singer-songwriter sort of effort, but with a vaguely incongruous reggae sort of rhythm guitar line somewhere off in the background. Somehow, it works. 'Rings on Your Fingers, Scars on Your Toes,' is built around a simple but effective looping vocal singalong chorus, which is eventually swept away on the rising wind. In the space, one can almost sense the wide open space, 'the loneliness of space and night' that inspired Saunders to write and record this EP.
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Saunders has clearly considered not only the individual compositions, but their sequence carefully, as the three preceding songs provide the perfect build-up to 'Waking and Evening Prayers for Rosemary-May,' which begins with a surging plucked acoustic guitar, played in the style of Leonard Cohen on his seminal debut (1967's 'The Songs of Leonard Cohen'), before an immense power-chord erupts through the tranquillity and shows that there's definitely more beneath the surface.
I had hoped that the uncredited 15-minute track at the end may see Paul show some of that 'more,' but alas it's just the four EP tracks mastered as one. Still, as a debut release, it's well-executed and got my attention. I shall be interested to see where he goes from here.
www.myspace.com/paulthomassaunders
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