Jan the Man - Long Player 4/5
Jan the Man is Jan Burnett, an accomplished musician of 35 years plus and this is his first solo album of instrumentals, thus we delve in.
As instrumental albums go, it's a very electronic and VERY eclectic affair,and like the best instrumental collections it feels like it's waiting for a movie to illuminate, and these movies are futuristic, nervy pictures with plenty of colourful characters lurking in each frame.
Tracks like ‘It’s Not About You’ feel alarming and critical of your ears, whilst ‘Smear’ is the very sound of confused isolation and ‘Dirty Little Fuckers’ is essentially the Devil laughing into your ears for four minutes whilst Jan’s sonic-smithery manipulates your equilibrium, in equal doses amazing and terrifying.
Long Player is absolutely full of sounds that play with your head, sometimes it's almost friendly (‘Raw’) often it's a headfuck (The frankly amazingly titled ‘Kinky Kunt’) but it is never bland nor coasting, there’s always another twist of the knife to keep the unfolding story interesting.
‘Long Player’ is a challenging listen, it can be cold and clinical, it can be daft and playful, it's never boring and it has furnished too many of my nightmares with a soundtrack, but as the previous music was shite this is a welcome addition to any dreamstate.