The tracks are :
1. Wild & Crazy
2. Dreamsville
3. Magic Radio
4. Pointing At The Moon
5. Train With Fins
6. Popsicle Head-Trip
7. Propeller Of Legend
8. Viva Le Voom-Voom
9. Billy Infinity
10. She Gave Me Memory
11. My World Spins
12. Rocketship
13. Girlfriend With Miracles
14. Spinning Dizzy On The Dial
15. Atom Shop (Is Closing)
During my childhood, like many of my generation, I succumbed to the
gloss and glamour of imported Americana. Seduced via the medium of
comic books, cowboys, movies and music, I maanged an America of dreams
... a place of rustic, rural charm whose skies were gracefully traced
by the vapour trails of rocketships, a place existing simultaneously
in the distant past and the far future...
Later, in my art-student teens, I discovered the perma-chrome delights
of Pop-Art, Custom Car culture and the writings of the Beat Generation.
Jazz and the Blues and the sounds of the psychedelic era also made
their presence felt around this time. All of this was absorbed through
the romantic filters of my English working-class sensibility and sank
slowly into the fabric of my imagination.
In more recent years, those early influences have started to make
their way to the surface again and I wondered if it was time to allow
them more space in my work.
In 1995, I released an instrumenatl album called 'Practically Wired'
(or how I became Guitar Boy), which was the first in a trilogy of
albums of which 'Atom Shop' is the final component. 'Practically Wired'
was a pulling together of diverse guitar voicings drawn from both
my earlier and later styles.
The second album in the series was 'After The Satellite Sings', an
album of maily vocal compositions which, whilst drawing upon a fairly
wide range of subjects, further explored some of the territory of
Americana and Beat Culture mentioned earlier. My concept was to blend
and cross-fertilize these ideas with whatever was inherently 'Englash'
in my music... to create a personal hybrid which referenced both my
real life and my fantasy life throughout a multiplicity of images.
'Atom Shop' continues this concept, allowing the American Iconography
to colour events even more.
Originally, 'Atom Shop' was to be a properly financed state-of-the-art,
studio recording utilising the various talents of musicians who struck
me as being appropriate for the project. I began by making some very
rough demos of the songs, intentionally keeping then as lo-fi and
unpolished as my conscience would allow. This was to avoid the possiblity
of them ever being released in thier own right, a temptationI have
surrendered to several times before.
The demos were recorded at home on my now ancient analogue equipment
using first takes as much as possible and laying down ideas as quickly
as they came to me.
Around this time, I had the good fortune to meet Mitchell Froom who
is to my ears, at the time of writing, the finest record producer
on the planet. Mitchell heard my demos and generously offered his
opinions and encouragement.
His suggestion was that the material did not need a producer as such
as he felt that the arrangements and general approach worked well.
He advised simply hiring some good musicians and booking time in a
quality studio but stressed not to change the notes and arrangements.
This was quite a shock to me as I had deliberately constructed the
music in as casual a fashion as possible, expecting to develop and
perfect it later.
Feeling encouraged by Mitchell's comments, I then sought out a way
to finance the proper recording of the album with the hope of improving
the actual sounds and opeing up the overall performance. Unfortunately
it proved difficlut to generate the kind of money necessary to attain
these ends and so the sonds lanquished as demo-tapes in my home archives.
Eventually, guided by friends who I trust, I decided to relax my initial
resolve and allow some of the demos to be released in their original
raw state. 'Atom Shop' is the result of that decision.
Like the subject matter it celebrates, 'Atom Shop' is a curious ride
down a twisting highway of ideas. It contains many rferences keading
back and forth across the landscpae of my own musical history as well
as signposts to some possible future destination. I hope you enjoy
the trip. Bill Nelson.
Having read the above notes, which are printed within the booklet
you get with the CD, I find it hard to believe that Bill found it
difficult to find anyone to help finance this project. Afterall, Bill
has been in the music industry now for quite a number of years.
The first time Bill Nelson's name came to my attention was with Be
Bop Deluxe, who made quite a few albums and some are regarded as classic
today. After that Bill formed Red Noise and released a few albums
which are excellent and then went solo, and has made a large quantity
of albums and from the ones that I have heard, I would say that they
were of excellent quality.
Most of Bill's solo work I would say was fairly experimental.
Atom Shop for me still carries on in the experimental mode and is
a mixture of Art-Pop, Rock, Blues and Jazz. And I would say that it
sounds like a cross between David Bowie, Brian Eno and Talking Heads.
The opening track is 'Wild & Dizzy', which starts with lots
of sampled narration and is set to a dance beat with the occassional
synth sound coming in.
The next track is 'Dreamville', slow blues/jazz track. For
me it comes over in a very Bowie-ish way, but I like it. It's very
Americana, commercial and very catchy.
The third track 'Magic Radio', once again this track is set
to a dance beat, but the music is more what you would expect in a
commercial or film soundtrack. But it works quite well.
The next track 'Pointing At The Moon', is a slow blues track
with some excellent guitar work.
'Train With Fins', comes in with a very strong dance beat while
some blues guitar plays in the background, this is another track that
is very catchy.
The sixth track 'Popsicle Head-Trip', this track is more in
the Art-Rock vein, the chorus is very catchy, the rest has a very
strong sense of rhythm.
The next track 'Propeller Of Legend', this is another catchy
track with some excellent keyboard & guitar work.
'Viva Le Voom-Voom', this track has a fairly slow dance beat.There
are also some fine samples, guitar and keyboards. The ninth track
'Billy Infinity', there's not really much of a melody on this
track, there's a strong dance beat and the rest of the music is just
played with the vocals making most of the melody.
The next track 'She Gave Me Memory', slow jazz/blues track.
'My World Spins', this is another catchy track all set to a
dance beat with some excellent keyboards and guitar.
The twelfth track 'Rocketship', hypnotic rhythms, dance beats,
excellent keyboards and guitar.
The next track 'Girlfriend With Miracles', this track starts
off with some eerie/spacey sounds and then goes into a middle eastern
theme.
'Spinning Dizzy On The Dial', this is another track with a
strong dance beat combines with some blues and jazz elements.
The final track 'Atom Shop (Is Closing)', is a short track with
some fine keyboards and distorted vocals and just finishes abruptly.
Well, even though I have to say there is quite a commercial aspect
to this album, there is still some very fine work on it. Personally
I like it, I must admit I am not one really for dance rhythms, but
combined with Bill's expertise, it comes over as a very listenable
album. I think if you like Bill's previous work then you will enjoy
this one too, otherwise anyone who like David Bowie, Talking Heads
should give this a listen.
Recommended!
Website : http://billnelson.com
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