ARTHUR TURNERS LOVECHILD?
SON OF THE HUMAN CANNONBALL
Release Date: 22nd Dec, 1997Cat No: DISCO9712
Format: CDS
He's fat, he's round, he bounces on the ground
He's the Son of the Human Cannonball. Innit?
After more years than they'd care to admit to, confusing and scaring local punters in equal measures, Oxford's sole exponents of 'Drunk Rock' (copyright themselves), Arthur Turner's Lovechild? released their debut single on Shifty Disco, a label well used to dealing with pop's most, ahem, maverick artistes.
After their first twelve months of releasing the best, and sometimes the strangest, singles by Oxford talent Shifty Disco exited 1997 on a high with a skyscraping punk anthem, 'Son of the Human Cannonball', which takes pop music on a looting and rioting rampage and comes back with a big fat sack of the Clash, the Vapors, Red Guitars, XTC and the Beach Boys. With military precision. With Japanese technology. With guitars that burn and antique synthesisers that wobble.
If that's wired then b-side, 'Six', is simply weird. A bizarre psychedelic mantra that souns like a cross between 'The End' by the Doors and a gothic Beach Boys fronted by a drunken hybrid of Johnny Cash and Tom Waits and produced by Lee 'Scratch' Perry.
Confused? Good, then we shall begin.
What are Arthur Turner's Lovechild? like?
"A bit like having diarrhoea" they say.
Best not to argue.
For more info on ATL? visit their Rotator web page.