IT’S BEEN four long years since we’ve heard from Fife’s Kenny Anderson, better known to us all as King Creosote. By my reckoning, that’s definitely four years too long.
Which makes the headlong pop-chant of “Susie Mullen” all the more sweet. It’s got vivacity and motorik like Too Pure-era Stereolab raised on cranachan. Modular synths and a tight-knit groove, proper bounce-around tackle.
And double the fun: he’s also released the more classically KC contemplative “Walter de la Mare”, which puts his evocative, grainy vocals centre stage over a slow, autumnal, piano and banjo-driven ballad, absolutely arrowing at your feels.
Both tracks are getting a vinyl issue from Domino on November 27th.
He says of his new tunes: “To find the source of inspiration for the music of ‘Susie Mullen’, you need only squeeze the belly of a souvenir camel toy from Egypt to unleash a rather urgent and tinny sounding nursery rhyme in Arabic, jam along in the key of Bb.
“A Crail live audience in 2017 heard the debut collaboration between KC and camel.”
And the titular Susie?: “With the luxury of hindsight, missed opportunities in the St Andrews Woollen Mill workplace of yesteryear have become today’s befuddled and rather embarrassing memories.”
Of “Walter de la Nightmare”, he adds: “The lyrics reference a song by Billy Pilgrim RIP from Fence Sampler #3, in which Walter de la Mare recounts a lightning strike on a large old tree.
“Nota bene: I am fully aware that ‘lymph nodes’ and ‘emphatic’ do not conflate to ‘node lymphatic’, but it sounds good to my ear, and it provides a much-needed rhyme.
“Both Susie and Walter have taken over two decades to make their pilgrimage from Egypt to Ullapool.”
The 7″ of “Susie Mullen” and “Walter de la Nightmare” is available to pre-order on 7” from Domino, here; catch up with King Creosote at his website and Facebook.
