Pilgrim Speakeasy: Freak Deco
Published: 15.08.2016
Reviewer: Mika Roth
The world is changing, people are changing, hair styles are changing - but some things can still be trusted. Like the fact that the new Pilgrim Speakeasy record is always surprising, even though Roger Davies in Scotland's gift to Sotkamo, the psychedelic style would be just as familiar. I just imagined that the Lo-fi Love at the Park Cafe album , which is about two years old, would be difficult, possibly impossible, to overcome. But what yet? Freak Deco takes the sound in a new direction and is like another start screen, after which all the doors are again open.
12 songs and nearly 69 minutes are a mammoth dose of pilgrimspeaky, so Davies has still not been able to get rid of his healing, but if a little stretch lasts to give this album a lot. And like its predecessor, Freak Deco needs to be given time and space. The disc is undeniably bent into background music, but when doing so, many treasure chests will be left undetected and I can recommend the exact passage of the album either by sound pressure, headphones or even if both hearing aids!
The basis for everything is again a kind of psychedelic poprock, sometimes colored with a progeny, sometimes with funking forces or electronic pop rock. Between the swinging wall 'Unbelievable' smiles on the audience as well the combination of Chris Connelly and Frank Sinatra . The most curious, and at the same time perhaps the most fascinating number is the more than nine and the half minutes of 'Life Force' that echoes the scene found by Santana...supported by Big Audio Dynamite .
In the past, Davies has fallen into striped stripes, but now I am happy to find that fresh songs live and breathe in a more relaxed atmosphere. And nothing has to be bargained for - as it is, the songs will roll forward when you just tilt your ears.