red eye pariah
released on: moday 11th september 2006
catalogue number: caged08 cd
Songs that have something to say told in such a way that you have to listen.
After the critical success of their debut album “Madame Tinkertoy’s Blues Factory”, the industrious Bocca locked themselves away in the depths of the English countryside to record the follow up – Red Eye Pariah
Bocca explore a deeper and at times more minimal side to their sound. Many tracks are stripped back down to the bare bones; others build into a rich texture of contrasting elements.
The songs here are all little stories, some jubilant, some not so pretty and some downright desolate … but life’s like that, nothing is clear cut and there is always plenty of room for greyness and moments of overwhelming colour.
The spectrum on offer here is much wider than Tinkertoy’s already broad instrumentation, an additional 5th member of the band seems to have brought along a box full of gadgetry.
With a highly acclaimed debut album behind them Bocca found themselves in a dilemma. It wasn't down to the lack of songs or ideas; Ray is a prolific songwriter presenting the band with new ideas every rehearsal. The problem was how to record this amount of songs with limited funds… well, they could have gone to a cheep studio and rushed through the songs in their basic form using second rate equipment in a squalid little room. This wasn't what they wanted, what they needed was time to develop their ideas as they were recording. Captive boss Tony Hoult had a small mixing/programming setup, fine for recording one performer at a time but not comprehensive enough to record a full band.
It was decided that Tony would upgrade the studio but recording Bocca in his front room would be a problem… all involved pulled some money together and decided to rent a cottage in the depths of the Leicestershire countryside.
Bocca have built up a strong following since they formed in 2002, sold-out gigs across the UK and CDs sold all over the world. From Hollywood executives to Swiss museum curators (La Maison d'Ailleurs)... Howe Gelb of Giant Sand is known to be a big fan of Bocca.
New to the line-up is long-time visual collaborator and one half of Swiss Guards, Harvey Sharman-Dunn. Bocca’s sound was always rich with the use of violins, Melotron, electric pianos, string sections and harmonica in addition to the more common line-up of guitars bass and drums. Harvey Sharman-Dunn adds oddities such as Theremin, bowed guitar, short wave radio and his own special method of wailing