MPWFAHSITHBNNTACTWSOTB approaches the listener from a totally unique angle. The
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voice, hardened from the slight warble which carried through his early solo material (and is still noticeable on the back-ups he performed for John's Children), remains uncompromising, but it blends so perfectly with the bizarre, almost eastern-sounding instrumentation that the most lasting impression is of a medieval caravansary whose demented Bedouin cast has suddenly been let loose in a recording studio.
It is an irresistible affair, if absolutely a child of its psychedelically-inclined time - "Frowning Atahuallpa" even recruits DJ John Peel to read a Tolkien-esque fairytale. But one of
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's loveliest compositions is here - the gentle, and deceptively melodic "Child Star," layered by harmonies which hit you sideways and are all the more mighty for it; one of his weirdest, too, is included, the mutant fairydance of "Strange Orchestras," which sounds like it was recorded by one. Together with fellow highlights "Chateau In Virginia Waters" and "Graceful Fat Sheba," both are so far ahead of the the material
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had been composing just a year earlier (subsequently made available on the Hard On Love/Beginning Of Doves retrospective), that the inclusion of the "oldies" "Hot Rod Mama" and "Mustang Ford" is almost disappointing.
They are, however, the only sour notes sounded on an album whose magic is discernable from so many different angles that it is hard to say which is its most astonishing factor. But it's hard not to be drawn to the actual dynamics of MPWFAHSITHBNNTACTWSOTB, the uncanny way
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take the slightest musical instruments, pixiephones, glockenspiels and a Chinese gong included, and make them sound like the heaviest rock'n'roll band on the planet. Anyone could play power chords, after all. But who else would play them on acoustic guitar?
~ Dave Thompson, All Music Guide
punt voor de bandnaam, als je het niet kent, zul je de albumtitel nooit raden