Label: unsigned

Producer: Mick Clack and Paul Gibbon

Release Date: 2002

Gazing at the Egyptian graffiti that adorned the sarcophagus in the Liverpool Museum in 1969, Tony Bancroft reminded me that certain things in life should be treasured. He had a pair of scuffed but beautifully preserved Tuff shoes, passed down by his brother Billy who worked on the bins, and which still had the little compass in the heel and even the paw prints that covered the soles of these shoes were still in good nick. I have grown up since then, and like Tony, I do treasure and cherish certain things that come my way. Today, you'd have a pretty hard job in trying to get near my copy of Nige and Trev's 'Stamp out M-M-M Madness in the air' in fact, don't even look at the CD artwork on this page, look at your own copy, or better still.. buy the album!

Sadly, and all too often Ladies and Gentlemen, we come across unsigned artists that equal or surpass their contemporaries in the 'signed' world. Nige and Trev should have been special guests on any one of Frank Zappa's or Captain Beefheart's albums. Or, Frank and Don should have been guests on any one of Nige and Trev's tracks. The reason being quite simply, that Nige and Trev often equal or surpass the work of these amazingly innovative artists, and I see it as my job in writing this review to explain why this is an indisputable fact.

Let's begin with the song Naomi and I were trees, now, don't look for it as it is not on this album. This track is a brilliant, must have, multi-colored collage of sound, assembled, arranged, and recorded in the absence of Don Van Vliet, the Mothers, and the Bonzos, but with reverence, respect, and salutations to all three. Spinning, whirling, up the walls and behind the radiators guitar bits, and some other rhythm and vocal things just make ya wish your volume control would go all the way to eleven! This is also true for the album that slips in between the sheets of psychedelia, rock, spoken word/comedy, experimental, fusion jazz, free jazz, and contemporary classical. And, Ladies and Gentlemen, let us not forget that the album you must have is the subject of this review.

The living world of sea creatures (makes me want to whistle) is actually on this album and acts as your first step on the escalator to the wonderment rooms. It truly is a work of monumental importance and is so cleverly constructed and produced that you end up listening with more than one head nodding in approval and your whole being yearning for more. There is a downside to listening to this track in that you literally can't stop whistling the running theme tune for hours, and sometimes this continues for days afterwards. Sarah Reeves superb vocal makes for good marriage material and the wisdom in the lyrics is the stuff of true poetic and linguistic genius. Watch out for the astonishing guitar breaks and you won't be disappointed. Message for Jimmy on the other hand, is the antidote to the whistling but not the yearning for more. The minds that composed and present this form of audiophilic euphoria are literally set on stun. Rumor has it that Janie Shorter's exquisite sax and Paul Gibbon's revivalist keyboard genius were epitomized in the ramblings of 'Chop Chop Charlie' in his literary masterpiece 'Is Whale in?' and even if you're two watts short of a sixty watt bulb, you'll understand why. Message for Jimmy is simply another monumental effort and if you listen to this song while sucking on a melon flavored Jolly Rancher, you'll be pleasantly uplifted (I'm not sure if Jolly Ranchers are available in the UK, if not, write in and I'll send you a pack).

Bligh's Woodstock Aunt/Off me f****in' ead/Bligh's jazz Daleks (easy listening chill-out medley) is a firm favorite of me Aunty Lucy's especially at Christmas when she turns the volume up all the way to eleven on her HMV radiogram. It's a track that would have kept the Bonzo's 'Let's make up and be friendly' at number one for years had it been included and renamed Nige and Trev 'Let's make up and be friendly. The inserts in this excitingly arranged masterpiece are what Sgt Rutherford of Mervyn Swift fame called 'little gems among a myriad of gemstones'. Need I say more? Doug's cough is a superb example of further exploration into the twilight realm of Rooftop Studios hidden aural dimension, located just beside and occasionally in front of the patch bay.

Better off working on the buses (Route #2) opens with Eric Sykes (with a cold) impersonator Jeffrey Kite, and meanders spectacularly around your headphones if you're wearing them. It's actually a sad statement usually hurled at artists, actors, and writers, who struggle with creative thoughts and ambition in a deprived social setting. Moving on happily however, The invertative state of yoh includes one of the most visually impressive Stratocaster wranglings I have ever seen, which once separated, could easily pass for a much deserved tribute to Mick Clack's 'The six year Mark' (see Mervyn Swift). Now, had I been responsible for working on the composing or recording of the magnificent DNA, I'd be a very happy and contented guy indeed. Forward thinking artists produce this kind of music for the benefit of the planet and it truly is a much better place for having this track in it. Keyboard work is skilled and tasteful in it's refusal to be derivative of anything that has gone before, and you have to admire the engineer here for keeping everything in check.

Better off working on the buses (Route #1) unlike it's predecessor (Route #2) is the track that nearly filled Holy Cross church to capacity when two of the altar boys sneaked a cassette version into the cassette deck that normally plays the church bells. With Perry on a G-string, we have a very short clip of something much bigger. The thing is with this sorta thing, is that you want it to be longer, and when it's a little over a minute long, you're left longing.

Perry cross the Mersey Cherwell continues where 'Perry on a G-string' left off, but with more discipline and support from synchronized guitar/vocal expert Dr Ruth Canal - taxi driver therapist and counsellor for the hard driven. Hard elf march is another 'just over a minute' sample of audio delight and you're looking at the narrow divide between accomplishment and establishment in midi keyboards and drums done properly. A welcome bridge between the spectacular that is, in itself, spectacular! Ayresy-boy's jackhammer is one of the best of the thirteen best tracks that make up this album. With delightful sweeping pads in all the right places matched by equally majestic guitar bits and lyrics, Ayresy boy's jackhammer is a showpiece of excelled musicianship and studio wizardry likely to have been composed or recorded at Abbey Road sometime in November. This track is a truly fantastic collage of audio delight spread across a canvas painted exclusively by the consummate masters of aural pleasures! Sadly, and I do mean sadly, To catch a baby donkey is the last track on this album and, almost certainly, the thirteenth. Rising, sweeping, guitars intermingled with a plethora of other things within the first few bars lead you into the Nige and Trev experience at full speed and without the comfort of seat belts. The thing is with music of this nature, and this is also true of the entire album, you might have your foot guarding the brake pedal at times, but you absolutely don't want anything to stop!

Nige and Trev are the product of the versatile and fertile inspiring's and imaginings of Mick Clack, Frank Fish, Paul Gibbon, Sarah Reeve, Dale Marshall, Janie Shorter, and Perry Smith. Equally guilty of having things to do with the offerings of 'Mechanics of Sorrow, Torn Hearts, and Frank Fish and the Fins, these are highly accomplished and gifted musicians, and in order to be as equally amazed as I have been in enjoying their work, all you really have to do is listen for yourself.

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