Ladies and gentlemen, I give to you...RUMFUCKER.
Benjamin Shaw answered the calling of
Soundcloud's "
International Album Making Month", an experiment based around duping artists into writing and recording an album completely from scratch between October 1st and October 31st. With this task, Benjamin ventured into BitchesAintShit Studios* to come out with '
Rumfucker' (he even finished slightly early) .
This album is available for free through his own
Bandcamp account -
DOWNLOAD HERE. While it is free, you can 'pay what you want' to the man, which you should because his private jet could do with a good clean**.
It's a curious and difficult album but one that offers a rewarding and versatile experience. Currently my favourite things to do with it are:
- Soundtrack William Peter Blatty's "The Exorcist" with it. It's creepy but reassuring.
- Get lost in London listening to it. It reminds me that sometimes you don't need an obvious direction to succeed.
- Listen to it on a noisy high street or train and try to work out which bits of racket are real and which are on the record. It's like a lo-fi I Spy (Lo-Fi Spy?) for one. Trust my lonely self to invent a game like that.
- Clench my fist and shout the title at people I think little of.
It's a largely instrumental beast filled with ugly noise, dirty fuzz and drunken piano. If his
"I Got the Pox, the Pox is what I Got" EP was songs with noise attached, this is very much noise with songs attached. In fact, when listening I can't help but picture him pointing and laughing at those naive to book him at their folk clubs. God bless their souls.
Amongst the bump & grind glory though are some different kinds of treasures.
"Johnny Come Home" verges on Post-Rock and really feels quite timeless. It's gargled lead vocal is something to behold:
"Sometimes I Fear My Head Might Explode" has half a song in there and is becoming one of my favourites in his recent sets:
And "Pig", while understated is probably up there with the best he's written:
If you're a musical coward though (yes, I am being cheeky today), you might be cosier with this:
I genuinely think Benjamin Shaw is one of the best on the planet and as an experiment and as an album 'Rumfucker' does little but strengthen this feeling.
* Made up.
** Also made up.
Jamie "FumRucker" Halliday - Audio Antihero: Specialists in Commercial Suicide
P.S EP & T-Shirt available...yadda yadda:
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