CD: Black Sedan - Adventure Lit Their Star

Mark Hodkinson is a Rochdale writer, journalist, songwriter and musician who’s also behind underground label/publishing house Pomona. Black Sedan is the latest product of his febrile mind, a band collective that’s been slowly coming together over the last couple of years.

Their debut album sprawls about a number of styles but retains a likeable cohesiveness, wallowing in a loose, strummed stew that’s lightly psychedelic with plenty of sonic trimmings.

It begins with “Love on Love”, a delicious, widescreen piece based around Charlie Chaplin’s fantastic speech at the end of The Great Dictator, all sewn together with an emotive female-sung chorus. It’s a strong opener. From there, things shuffle about haphazardly but with an engaging overall feel. Black Sedan major in floaty freak-folk, boosted by spatterings of interesting percussion and, sometimes, electronically propelled beats. This means it’s often about a mood, a jammed journey, than proper songs, but at other times, real songs do rise from the gumbo.

In the latter category, “If I Could Be Where You Are” is seven-and-a-half minutes redolent of the Stone Roses and their baggy ilk, perhaps partly because John Matthews of Manchester outfit The High is singing (I swear I only found the latter fact out after coming to the former conclusion). Folk singer Kellie While adds a Fairport-ish lustre to proceedings, notably on the melancholic “Even Worse”. Also on board are a solid indie jangle called “Nurture the Heart (You Say)” which is smothered in spacey percussion, and spoken word sequences, including the poetic monologue “The Girlfriend Self-Help Book”, and the album ends with two covers of early Seventies Robert Calvert songs, both of which have an enjoyable Hawkwind freak-bounce to them.

Adventure Lit Their Star belies a cover that looks as if it was created in an introductory Photoshop class, and announces itself as an album that, in a woozy, wandering sort of way, is strangely more-ish.

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Below: watch the video for "Love on Love" by Black Sedan (containing parts of Charlie Chaplin's mighty speech at the end of The Great Dictator)