The Dials “The Dials” (Gear Discs 2007)

Dial M for marvellous

There have been few records of late full of really cosmic Americana music and fewer still from these shores. Now at last, spaghetti western themes, surf instrumentals, garage, head trips, psychedelia, country, jazz, west coast pop and rock come together to live in perfect harmony. If this record were a person it would wear a Nudie suit. The opening couple of tracks should get them soundtrack work with Tarrantino, but the urge for twanging overkill is soon suppressed with ‘Lonely Boy’ which breaks out pedal steel and harmonies for a shot at country pop nirvana and with the piano notes sending a Morse code love letter to the hardest hearts - they are off to a fantastic start.

The 14 tracks sprawl all over the stew of the last 40 years of music bringing to the surface nuggets of country music that have been seasoned in the cosmic stew and fused with all manner of other ingredients, their absolute control over their craft allowing them to combine strange flavours into a satisfying tasty whole. Skiffle, twang and honky-tonk all happen at once and at some speed on ‘Pontius Pilate at Kmart’ blended together they sound perfectly natural. ‘Where Did Our Love Go’ adds some unlikely soulful Hammond organ and horns to help ludicrously but successfully recreating the soulful Stax/Motown sound that is rescued from cliché with some raw guitar and a freaked out Hammond player held steady by the horns.

Echoes of Love pulse through unsinkable ‘The Coracle’, with ‘Me So Fah’ being the kind of simmering psychedelia that Mercury Rev started out making (think ‘Very Sleepy Rivers’) mixing passing freight train whistles of pedal steel with a stream of xylophone, skittering percussion and some jazz piano, before John Coltrane gatecrashes the party - once the saxophone is ejected everything turns into a gently roiling river of bucolic psychedelic noise. Amongst all of this straining experimentation there exist islands of beauty: ‘Willow Craft Centre’ recovers from the excess with some lovely pedal steel and an almost generic structure.

A sprawling stylistically diverse work that is almost flawlessly executed, this is the type of studio record that the Sadies constantly fail to deliver. An excellent debut.

Date review added:  Monday, February 12, 2007
Reviewer:  David Cowling
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