pocket

       Alex Ward - guitar
       John Bisset – guitar
       Christopher Evans - bass
       Oliv J. Picard - drums

 

       'Rumbustious tunes which split off into unexpected   directions.
       Pocket are a janglin' twangin' ball of joyous energy'
       Richard Sanderson

 

 


'Some albums just come crashing into your life like a wave escaping the beach, with a mighty life-affirming splash of electric guitar. In 1977, Elvis Costello’s and Talking Heads’ first releases both felt that way. Later and less mainstream, Surfin’ With Kenny Process Team mixed Beefheart angst with a rush of joy. And now, from nowhere, come Pocket, with a dozen guitar, bass and drums instrumentals that dare you to whistle them out loud, but without insulting your intelligence. The album is carried by two contrasting guitars: Alex Ward’s nasal sneer versus John Bisset’s deep-throated, Vox AC30-amped twang. Bisset’s melodies pit the guitars against each other, trading phrases in a spiralling, competitive hocket, until both collapse back into the main tune.

I think back to The Shadows, whose "Apache" sat astride the charts forever when I was a kid, for a similar irony-free belief in the two-guitar instrumental. But Pocket bring more soul and aural filth to bear on their devotion to the redeeming power of melody. "Wellingtons" is driven by a Bo Diddley beat, "Horatio" is a sprightly march as played by Jimi Hendrix, and "Wily Coyote", written for This Heat’s Charles Hayward. lets French Drummer Oliv J Picard get flash with the crash. "Tumba" shows Pocket at their effervescent best: a cod flamenco climbing line rises and rises, until it resolves magnificently at its summit into a heartstopping major scale – an impressive rush for a debut album.

Now this is odd, because Alex ward was previously known as an improvising clarinettist, and John Bisset s leader of the LEGO electric guitar orchestra and Improv promoter at North London’s 2:13 Club, where the clock on the wall is forever stuck at 2:13. There is nary a hint of such pedigrees here, except perhaps on "Evens", where Ward plays one chorus as if tipping a hat to his erstwhile improvising partner Derek Bailey.'

BY CLIVE BELL - The Wire Magazine July 2002

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