Fastest Man In The WORLD!!!

O.K., O.K., before you're all on about how I'm the only brilliant recording artist and writer left in the world (did I say that!!!) and how the future of western culture lies in the four links over to th' right maybe you oughtta take a gander at this fuckin' guy.

If you go to this link and then go to "listen" there's a six-song EP there called "Six Songs Of Good And Evil" that'll g'damn give you pause. If you take me, subtract Byron and Bacharach and some string sections and all those tedious harmonies and add some angst and some chops and a great, astringent, precise voice you'll pretty much have Duncan Watt. Watt is one of those artists who makes due with less by making sure everything that is there sounds tits. He's got a way with a modulation, often deploying interesting ones to bring on a chorus or bridge and he's been very careful to let his piano do the lion's share of the music-ing which creates a tight little direction, and everybody knows I love that crap.

Um, I've already ripped off a bunch of his crap and you know that means it's good. Also, if you're an indie filmmaker looking for a soundtrack I think this fuckin' guy can hook you up. Just guessing.

A lot of this music has that XTC-ish quality of hitting you from the left with an unexpected passage of unreeling complexity such as the bridge and outro of the cascading "Gun". Hammond organ makes a sly, leslied entrance with equally leslied guitar that Watt may or may not be surprised to hear resembles Abbey Road era Lennon more than it does our Joe Jacksons and Elvis Costellos (Quayle spelling: Costelloes).

The skeletal, atmospheric "Fragile" builds on water-bottle percussion but only just a little. "Fragile" is the clearly the center of this collection, where the mission statement of less-is-more-but-make-it-sound-tits is the most effectively deployed. Beginning with a stately piano processional which (that? what the fuck! which? that?) morphs into austere percussion before introducing the autumn-soaked verse, "Fragile" modulates with almost every other chord. Floating upwards through the verses and down into the chorus, these messings-about with keys create a wandering, unearthly motif that echoes the lyric brilliantly.

So yeah, it swings. Fuckin' guy. Duncan Watt.