Let's hope that either there's more where this came from or that the pandemic lasts long enough to oblige a follow up, I wrote back in February 2021, and it seems that the secret chiefs who control the universe from behind the scenes didst heed my call, for here we are again, very much enjoying second helpings from Joe 91 and the Shend. It's the same sort of deal as before - distortion, repetition, gas-powered synths, and all recorded inside a broom cupboard (all of which should serve as a recommendation); and yet it's different, expanding on what went before, even more cinematic in places - keeping in mind that we could be talking Screen Test as much as we're talking Ben Hur or Chariots of Fire. Joe's music - assuming it's mostly him - is evolving into a sort of electronic future nostalgia, Just William on the moon or something in that direction, having moved further and further away from any of the more more obvious influences. At a similar remove from more or less everything else ever, the Shend continues to explore the depths of that same rabbit hole which provided such succour to Lewis Carroll, Thomas de Quincey and the guy who wrote all of those Tarzan books; and unlike all the chancers who habitually get it wrong, he's perfected the art of serving up riotous absurdity with an absolutely straight face, even a single tear in one eye, notably on Junkers, a song about an aeroplane which breaks your heart without it ever being entirely clear quite why.
Amazing.
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