There’s this mod milieu, harking back to the Eighties. Weller at the forefront; Dr Robert and his Blow Monkeys; all righteously hate Thatcher; then the electronically groovy 1990s arrive; Acid Jazz Records; boss mod Eddie Piller; his collection of snappily dressed muso's who magazines wrote about and who nearly had hits. These sorts are still about, endlessly churning out music. It’s impressive. Sometimes the music is too. As with this album.
Matt Deighton was in Acid Jazz outfit Mother Earth. He’s one of the aforementioned who keep on bangin’ out music. Much of it well-liked. Those mods number few but are devoted. Dr Robert is also prolific. Not only with his smartly turned-out Blow Monkeys. He also gathers endless others who fit the above descriptions for his Monks Road Social collective. Since 2019, they’ve made four – four! – albums.
But The Instant Garden is a change of speed. It isn’t mod-ish. It smells of the early Seventies. Of hippies in hash-fugged rooms. Flared denim. Think Gordon Lightfoot and Cat Stevens but slightly sonically smeared, acid-tinted, touched by the spirit of Melanie, Syd, and the very earliest Bowie. The core of the album is built around a likeable combo of rambling, repetitive, stoned acoustic strumming and pinpoint-picked electric guitar. A dozen songs are thus rendered, their lyrics dreamy and numinous.
Songs range from the jolly “Superstitious Woman” to the gentle, thoughtful chug of “Philosophy” to the mantric George Harrison-at-his-most-spaced “God is Nature” to the Easy Rider country blues of “Already There” to the jovial campfire patchouli sing-along "Dude in a Roller". The nearest to an upbeat groover is the title track, a wah-wah-fuelled Tyrannosaurus Rex-do-psyche thingy (“Won’t you accompany me down in the undergrowth?”). After a while, the album's wafting vibe captivates, charms. The songs aren’t immediate, not all are memorable, but a mood is built. The listener is transported somewhere Dr Robert and Matt Deighton have mustered. It's a good place to wander about for a bit.
Below: Listen to "Dude in a Roller" by Dr Robert & Matt Deighton
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