Japhy Ryder Review

Dear all;

Yet another review for you...

Cookie Heart Bleeding Crumbs - The Best of Japhy Ryder and his band

(Blue Minnow Records)

Japhy Ryder for those of you in the know is a name Jack Kerovac (Yes, the beat generation writer of the 1950's and 1960's) called Gary Synder in one of his book (Two brownie points for anybody who can remember which).

Of course, this isn't the Japhy Ryder in question (Not sure if he is still alive), but I am sure he would have understood this excellent retrospective fairly recently released on Blue Minnow Records (Home of the excellent "Trilemma") in the sense of this CD is as varied as the adventures you may have found in any beat generation book in the sense of one track for example "Buffy N Yatsura" may sound like a more muffled Movietone and yet the next minute, the band morphs into something a good deal harsher like on "Wionna" where they come across as real lo fi pop before then moving onto "My Stars are the same as your stars." where they come across as almost a more melodic Mogwai.

As you may have guessed, this is an incredibly varied CD indeed and certainly not for all tastes, but not all Kerovac's pieces for everybody, but for those who like their songs wistful, melodic and lo fi (sometimes with the same breathe) will find plenty of delights within here and for the sum of £2 (which is what it costs), you can't really go wrong.