BAREBACK
Logging on with the Dogs
'...mesmeric and darkly enigmatic uneasy listening. This is deft acoustic music with a rare soulful ache and a powerful twisted beauty ' Time Out
'' I thought they were fantastic. I couldn't work out how a band from South London could write songs like that.......I've resisted signing anyone for a long time, but I love this band so much I had to do it.' Joe Boyd of Hannibal/Rykodisc interviewed in Music Week
"....they wield a haunting mystery that is fascinatingly surreal and almost imperceptibly ghosts into your psyche......You end up wondering if you're being seduced by the devil" Mojo Magazine
".....curiously impressive" Time Out
"The Hank Dogs deliver a strong.....acoustic debut which leans heavily on the distinctive harmonies....Accessible and tuneful, this is a debut with depth." Q Magazine
"Originari del sud di Londra, gli Hank Dogs sembrano una piccola famiglia freak piuttosto che una rock'n'roll band. Anche i nomi (Piano, Andy, Lily) hanno un sapore informale e sembrano scelti apposta per confondersi con mille altri. Eppure senza grandi pretese o annunci roboanti, gli Hank Dogs sono riusciti a trasportare su disco tutte le atmosfere delle loro canzoni, dove la creatività è di casa. Certo, Bareback è un esordio soltanto sulla carta perché Andy ha suonato per vent'anni in tutta Londra, Sam Harley (il produttore) è un veterano e l'eminenza grigia che li ha scoperti nella loro tana (l'Easycome Acoustic Club: si chiama proprio così) è un certo Joe Boyd, oggi boss della Hannibal Records, ma in passato notoriamente dietro le consolle di Pink Floyd, Nick Drake, Fairport Convention, John Martyn etc.. Difficile capire quindi chi abbia pesato maggiormente sul risultato finale di Bareback che, comunque lo si giri, è poco meno che eccellente: gli Hank Dogs rivisitano e interpretano la tradizione dei folk inglese e di un certo songwriting aperto verso le sperimentazioni con estrapolazioni country & western (la lunga introduzione di 18 Dogs), neolatine (l'inciso di tromba di Bareback) e una miriade di sogni innocenti e vagamente psichedelici. Spiccano le chitarre acustiche (soprattutto quelle di Andy), le voci femminili (Piano e Lily, la figlia di Andy: ascoltatele nel frammento di Free Spirit), un'eccellente fisarmonica in ReUnion e canzoni come Way Of The Soul (molto bello il pianoforte), I'm An Angel o Sun Explodes che sembrano uscite da una sovraesposizione ossessiva ad Astral Weeks. Atmosfere rarefatte, armonie angeliche, melodie sfuggenti. Per tutto questo, Bareback e gli Hank Dogs sono da prendere con le pinze e con il massimo rispetto possibile" MARCO DENTI (Buscadero n°193 - Luglio/Agosto 1998)
"Some records demand a night time intimacy -- curtains closed, the sense of darkness outside -- to open up. That's the way of the Hank Dogs." --Wired 3/99
"It's brooding and mysterious, intriguing and seductive." --Time Out New York 2/18-25/99
"There's a dark atmospheric British folk tradition that can be traced from Sandy Denny to Beth Orton, one that possesses an old soul sense of the spiritual and seductive. And it lives in the Hank Dogs..." --Boston Globe 2/25/99
"The group transforms run-of-the-mill folk themes into gripping little dramas." --Philadelphia Inquirer 2/26/99
"The Hank Dogs remind us how stirring that English folk-rock sound can be." --Washington Post 2/26/99
HALF SMILE
"The Hank Dogs' exceptional 1999 debut had the feel of an opening salvo that would ultimately prove to be the high watermark for the South London trio. With three years passing since its release, one could be forgiven for wondering if the father/daughter/second-wife trio had it in them to recapture the magic of their taut, tense entrée. Half Smile washes away such doubts from the start. With Piano, the mother of the clan, in the fore, Hank Dogs again serve up a set of songs that are striking in their rich detail and quiet menace ("Now I understand how maybe it's possible/ To want to hurt someone," she intones coolly on "Rise"). Musically, they stick with what's worked for them in the past, building their sound around interweaving acoustic guitars, here fleshed out slightly more than on their initial effort, but far from busy. Very much akin to Kate Rusby, another stunning U.K. folk upstart, this threesome proves the British folk scene is riding a wave that may just now be crashing on faraway shores." --Steven Stolder (Amazon.com)
"What if music had smells? If CDs were impregnated with an aroma that embodied the essence of the sounds. Motorhead would be leather, axle grease and sweat, Lucinda Williams would be the smell of tarmac intermingling with fresh cornfields, Radiohead would be antiseptic and anything from the Pop Idols stable would, of course, be a ripe processed cheese. If that were the case then playing the Dogs would fill the room with the scent of leafy English country lanes, the grass glistening with dew, raindrops from a summer shower dripping from leaves on the trees, a clean freshness in the air.
Comprising Andy Allen, formerly a jobbing member of the Pistols and Professionals, his ex-lover Joanna 'Piano' Pace, and his (but not her) daughter Lily Ramona, it's been four years since the South London trio emerged with their Joe Boyd overseen debut, Bareback, on his Hannibal label. Reviews glowed for their fusion of English folk rock, celtic country and the sort of midwest American gothic embodied by Matthews Southern Comfort, underpinning lyrics of a generally downbeat mood.
However a cancelled Rankins tour on which they'd been booked as support followed by label problems, took the edge off what should have been fast lane progress up the folk roots ladder. Now they're back via a different licensing deal, still with Boyd keeping a watchful eye, and while there's times when the mix has a few too many rough edges, if the wheels turn smoothly there's no reason why this shouldn't elevate them to the hallowed ranks of artists such as the Indigo Girls, Dear Janes, the McGarrigles, Poozies, Michelle Shocked, and the early incarnation of Suzanne Vega.
Evoking worthy comparisons to the likes of McTell, Thompson and Martin Taylor, Allen's nimble fretwork dances all over the album, cascading arpeggios, tumbling lullabies, meditative strums, bluegrass banjo, steel strings twanging and resonating under his fingertips. Here and there the acoustic guitars are coloured with mournful woodwind, hand percussion, cello, dulcimer, and double bass but mostly they're left to weave their own spells, the women's voices - sometimes in harmony, more often with Piano's dust and creekwater wearied whispering tones taking lead - providing the real complementary textures. Her songs haven't exactly found the sunnier paths of life, but as the album title, Whole Way (where they express the optimistic hope to 'sell a lot of records') and even death song Little Door ("I wouldn't say the world has opened up, just a little door but it's enough" ) hint there's at least rays of light coming through and any darker concerns are well shaded behind the generally sprightly tunes.
Spanning English trad folk flavours and appalachian mountain music (Let Alone Me), it's hard to pin down prize tracks from the 12 contained here, but pushed to name favourites then the repeat play button hits on the haunting Half Smile with the two women weaving witchy, dank forest harmonies as a flute threads its way between the spaces, the resigned Women Who Love Too Much (as Fred Neil meets Sandy Denny), Singers (shades of Leonard Cohen and early Judy Collins) and Hollywood, a dreamy tale of empty success, self-deceptions and those left behind in the road to fame on which Allen takes lead vocals, his timbre and phrasing sounding not unlike Billy Bragg. It's a beguiling, intoxicating album, inhale and breath in deep"
MIKE DAVIES - NETRHYTHMS