The cover of this CD says nothing about itself. A black and white photo of a wooded area with weeds, and with an album title of ‘The Purgatourist’? it’s got to be pretty Goth, right? Wrong!!! There are two wordS that effectively describe this album of lo-fi garage/country styled music played by the one man band that is ALYOSHA HET and that’s ‘Bloody Brilliant!’
It’s extremely refreshing when something comes your way that confounds all expectations, and this album was certainly one of them. There are eleven tracks here, but the album lasts just over thirty minutes, and if you get a copy of this, you’ll savour every single second.
It kicks off with ‘Little Green Pills – Little Green Men’ a track that starts off as an acoustic guitar country strum before you realise that there are virtually all the elements of 1960s garage rock in there – a brilliant drug song where Alyosha implores “Get me home and get me stones again” in his distinctive voice, which sounds a little at time like Wreckless Eric, with a few Joey Ramone intonations. This is a classic track with some wry observations: - “Little green pills, little green men, little green pills and little green men/ That’s all I see, don’t stand so close to me/ Well just like Joe Meek, I know they’re watchin’ me.”
What I really liked about this album is that it sounds a lot like a garage rock busker, a bit like the UK’s Hank Haint, although Alyosha employs primarily acoustic rather than electric guitar. Added to this is Alyosha’s unique lyrical slant on things, which makes for an excellent listen.
Tracks like ‘A Sudden Death – A Nice Surprise’ show a gallows humour when describing the daily grind: - “Got a job at the mall, sellin’ cigarettes and alcohol/ To lonely, lonely people, look a lot like me.” Where Alyosha nails it for me is the lyrics work so well in the setting they’ve been given. Lines like “Stars are twinklin’ like traffic lights.” would be overlooked with a big band style production. Here, as everything’s stripped to the bone, it stands out starkly.
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‘My Life in the 7th Town of the Dead’ is a great song that catches anti-war sentiment, and the treatment and lack of support for those returning: - “Johnny went to war, Johnny lost his head/ Johnny’s stumblin’ round the seventh town of the dead.” What this track has is a brilliant doo-wop take on a serious subject which makes the lyrical content much more startling.
Other tracks I really liked were the magnificently titled ‘I’m a Creep (And Your Sister Is Painfully Aware of this Fact).’ Which is the ultimate in non-romance: - “I’m going down to your house, I’m gonna tell you how much I care/ I’m going down to your house, if you’re not home I hope your sister’s there!”
‘Bury Me Standing’ is a track that reminded me of some of Bob Dylan’s work with its classic imagery: “Well the Russian kids are doin’ it down at the discotheque/ And the waitress look like Jesus, but she did not pay my cheque/ So I went to see a holy man who was livin’ in a tent/ He said that life is but a grand social experiment.”
All in all, not a duff track on the album. Alyosha has said that “If music doesn’t pan out, I plan to move to Romania and hunt vampires.” Buy this album, there are plenty Van Helsings, but surely only one Alyosha Het.
Chain Smoking Records online
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