Ramshackle Pier

by Andy Bole
ReR Megacorp, Thornton Heath, Surrey UK, 2005
CD, Ad Hoc 05, $13.00
Distributor’s website: http://www.adhocrecords.com, http://rermegacorp@dial.pipex.com, http://www.rerusa.com

Reviewed by Michael R. (Mike) Mosher
Saginaw Valley State University, University Center MI 48710 USA

mosher@svsu.edu

Maybe it's the unmistakability and historical resonance of the instrument, the steel-string acoustic guitar, but in the first few notes of "Carogeen" cut one on Andy Bole's Ramshackle Pier, I heard echoes of the Beatles, blues from the Virginia Tidewater, and Blind Faith's "Can't Find My Way Home". Guitarist for the Late Night Band and the Lowest Notes, this 1984 album reissue displays Bole's eclecticism, an endearing trait he shares with certain British guitarists like Belew, Fripp, and Renbourn. Some cuts have lush strumming, noodling pseudo-samisen orientalism, spry bazouki or spy movie intensity. Others lay down solo lines that mountain bike off the trail for the enraptured listener to follow, or tick off the sort of atonal clockwork that made my high school crew, the Bison Boys, think we were carrying on highbrow traditions of Stravinksy and Satie (or at least the Bonzo Dog Band's Neil Innes). This likeable instrumental album is sparsely produced, and multitracking is used effectively. May be listened to at 3 a.m. to enhance contemplation.