Thighpaulsandra - Acid & Ecstasy

No one makes albums like Thighpaulsandra. No one sounds like Thighpaulsandra. Minimalism is certainly not his thing. Acid & Ecstasy is his first album since 2019's Practical Electronics, a largely solo recording. Here, he returns to an extended group format - featuring Sion Orgon and others, delivering an exhilarating and unpredictable synthesis of electronics, rock, psychodrama, and much more besides.

On 'Princess Margaret's Mellotron' he sings, "I get tired of expectation," which could almost serve as his raison d'être. His creativity shines in the way each track shifts through multiple movements, cutting and transitioning from drone to electro-acoustic passages, doom chords to jazzy touches, and theatrical rock opera - often all within a single piece. Acid & Ecstasy is a distillation of his solo releases alongside his work with Julian Cope, Coil, Spiritualized, Wire, and currently Hawkwind and Cindytalk. Lyrically, it draws on his obsessions and fascinations, laced with surreal imagery, absurd humour blurring the lines between sincerity and satire. Nothing is out of bounds here, and it's all the better for it.

"I am disgusted by the digital narcissism of some parents, the endless parade of perfect pictures makes me wonder what's really going on behind closed doors..." are the opening words of 'Then Not Speaking' setting the tone as the track moves from spiraling guitar, oboe, and piano into swelling harmonised voices, before opening into an extended section of avant-garde electronics. Distorted spoken passages give way to clipped funk chords and half-sung lines, as Thighpaulsandra recounts a bizarre episode involving torture, offset by a glorious soaring soul vocal, closing theatrically with oboe stabs and tinkling piano. Its descriptions of torture, much like the homoerotic imagery of past cover art, seems set to provoke controversy with those who miss the humour. Even the cover of Practical Electronics led one publication to refuse to cover the album.

'The Rococo Fondler' opens with a tangle of electronic clatter - whirs, stray piano crashes, and snaking guitar lines - before locking into a low-slung throb of bass and drums. Thighpaulsandra delivers his lines in a quickened, shameless snarl, bolstered at points by a chorus of voices. Barbed phrases like "the old witch, Myra Hindley hair" and "the vile so-called author peddling his elevated adolescent fantasies hides behind the organ" give the piece its acidic core. It surges forward on skittering jazzy piano runs and electronic sequences before collapsing into repeated, dramatic crescendos, complete with horns straight out of a John Barry action score.

By contrast, driven by a slab of doomy thrash, 'Vultures and Crows' hurtles forward in barked vocal fragments - "Meat, fags, purse, bingo, thick, black fingers" - surrounded by ensemble gang vocals that disintegrate into warped, chaotic processed effects resurfacing and switching gears between jittery guitar mannerisms and slow doom chords. It shifts further into vocal passages over chiming guitars, once more underpinned by gang vocals and dramatic synth patterns and out via abstract electronics. This move into rock territory might be unexpected but it's not without precedent (see 'On the Register' from The Golden Communion). With Thighpaulsandra's idiosyncratic approach, and accompanied by those massed gang chants, it comes off brilliantly.

'The Curtain' rises from drone into flickering electronics, evoking echoes of Coil's 'Further Back and Faster', before morphing into a ritualistic rhythmic thrust layered with pipes and murmured chants. It's a curious track carrying lyrics like "it was no accident, the path they led" threaded with flourishes of plucked flamenco guitar as it drifts back into drone and spectral electronics later carrying references to "dead horses" as it patters to hollow drum patterns. Further on, chants of "heed the sun, sorrow" punctuate propulsive drums, wigged out psych guitar and cinematic synths stabs over flickering electro and massed chants, which envelop Thighpaulsandra's vocals, as it falls into an extended outro of squelching electronics, jazzy guitar shards, and glinting piano tones.

'Princess Margaret's Mellotron' kicks off in full avant-garde mode - scraping noises, droning textures - as a guitar solo slips into pulsing '80s-style electro. Then come the poppy vocals from Sion Orgon accompanied in rich harmonies, and into Beatles-esque piano, with a burst of Queen-like guitars leading into a chorus of "Winston Churchill shot his load on Princess Margaret's Mellotron" - a bizarre, genius concoction involving ELO-style harmonies that somehow works. The electronics speed up, Thighpaulsandra's voice stays slow over percussive rhythms while the drums get choppy, frantic, almost hyperactive. Then with solo and ensemble vocals, it slips into piano and woodwind exploding into thrashy, soaring guitars, climbing up with synths into that super catchy chorus of "Winston Churchill shot his load on Princess Margaret's Mellotron" backed by more huge Queen-like guitars. I've always had a soft spot for these curious pop moments and while 'Valerie' from The Golden Communion was a favourite, it's just been usurped by this one. A whole album in this vein would be magnificent.

'Cattle Truck' opens with sombre, church-like vocals over wafting woodwind underpinned by wavering, whirring, electronics ushering in rolling drums entwined with synth patterns drawing out the camp theatrics as it erupts into the aggressive massed chants of "herd the bitches into the cattle truck, hose them down the piss..." abruptly dissolving into droning ambience and a sample of the petty, ridiculous fixations of a middle-class parent. A processed and symphonic apology and polite applause precede a lunge back into those chants, skittering, pumping electronics and wiry synth squiggles, which mutate into funky bass tones, climbing synth scales, and a snaking prog-guitar solo, and as "the neighbours are watching" 'The Curtain' closes on Thighpaulsandra's operatic vocals suspended in atmospheric synth haze.

Finally, 'The Brown Hare Remains' opens as a mélange of processed electronic effects, gentle taps, and chimes. Layered melodic vocals soon give way to driving drums and pulsing electro, which expand into cinematic synthscapes filled with rising tones - evoking a sort of sci-fi chase sequence. Massed harmonies enter, conjuring the image of a hummed western theme, before a soaring, squealing prog guitar solo takes off into the stratosphere. The track then shifts, replaced by surging synth sequences punctuated with percussive knocks and crashes. The intensity subsides into ebbing drones, leading into an atmospheric section of lulling synths and slow pulses, providing a backdrop for descriptive spoken vocals rich in imagery of a more earthbound nature - dark moorland skies, a bird asleep on the wing, suspended in forest air - with narration slips between French and English, adding a dreamlike, cinematic quality for a repeated intoning of the title, before fading into a beautiful, spacious ambience.

Acid & Ecstasy is audacious, expansive, and overwhelming. It occupies a unique space where avant-garde experimentation, prog-rock grandiosity, and melodic pop converge. Thighpaulsandra is such a singular artist, challenging musical convention with flair, flamboyance, and a dash of provocation. No one makes albums like Thighpaulsandra - no one dares to. Acid & Ecstasy is quite the trip, and it comes with the highest recommendation. Mind blown! Acid & Ecstasy is released by Retractor Records is available on CD from Thighpaulsandra store and double vinyl from Thighpaulsandra store