Pagan Wanderer Lu: Fight My Battles For Me
Pagan Wanderer Lu: Fight My Battles For Me
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Saturday, 20, Jun 2009 05:52
Brainlove Records, out now.
In a nutshell...
Casio-worshipping indie-electronica
What's it all about?
A mix of acoustic guitar, electro bleeps and clever-clever lyrics, all bound together with a kind dog-eared charm.
Who's it by?
One-man 'indietronica' outfit Pagan Wanderer Lu, also known by the more prosaic 'Andy Regan'. Hailing from Aberystwyth, this is the Welshman's fifth album.
As an example...
"We all love to live vicariously/Through the sporting achievements of our country/But if an asylum seeker can be England keeper/Then our team winning would just lose all meaning." - Gentleman's Game
Likelihood of a trip to the Grammys?
Minimal. He ain't exactly mainstream.
What the others say
"A master craftsman of melodic electronic indie." – Drowned In Sound
So is it any good?
Welding together a glut of different genres like some kind of musical blacksmith, Pagan Wanderer Lu is nothing if not unique. Mixing folky guitar riffs with an old-school Casio electric keyboard and Hot Chip-esque vocals, Fight My Battles For Me is a genuine oddity. The Memorial Hall is a case in point, beginning with sombre vocals and strings, before exploding into a blur of video-game bleeps and synths.
At its best, the album is an intriguing mix of styles that keeps you hooked on the strength of its sheer invention. Gentleman's Game uses bursts of choppy punk-guitar to cleverly evoke a tear-up on a football pitch, whilst the sweetly melodic Stop Traveller! Stop And Read is simply a delight. The cobbled-together feel of the whole affair lends it a certain makeshift charm absent from more slickly-produced mainstream efforts.
However, Lu certainly hits a few bum notes along the way. The plain vocal delivery begins to wear thin on Simple life/Repetition 4, whilst the whirring electro-drone of Good Christian/Bad Christian starts to grate long before the track has got anywhere. Despite these shortcomings, the album is an interesting effort that deserves more attention than it will probably get. And anyone with the lyrical whimsy to imagine Winston Churchill proclaiming, "I love my dog as a human being", is all right by us.
7/10
George Wales