amERICa

Description

Wreckless Eric is a hero to all those of us who love a good kitchen sink drama set to music. He takes the strangeness in the everyday and sets it to song. Like Ray Davies, Kevin Ayers and Ian Dury, he is a truly great British songwriter Phil Alexander, editor in chief, MOJO magazine

A sound that Joe Meek would have killed for Q Magazine

Following on from a Fire Records reissue campaign which casts new light on a decades-long career, Wreckless Eric releases his first solo album in over a decade amERICa Its about Eric, its about America a country he has toured since the late 70s, and where he has lived since 2011. Eric recorded the album in his ramshackle house in upstate New York: amplifiers in the kitchen, in the hallway, bass amp in the guest bedroom, microphones up the staircase, speaker cabinets in doorways, frenetic bursts of guitar feedback exploding out of the kitchenHes been living like this for years, since the 1980s drove him screaming from legitimate recording studios. A way of life transported from England to France, to England, back again to France, and finally to America. Eric played electric guitars and bass throughout, strummed a scratchy 3/4 size Framus Teenager acoustic (bought from an old blues singer down in Georgia) against simplistic drum loops of his own creation. Here and there he called on friends and neighbours Brian Dewan manned a malfunctioning Wurlitzer organ and other dodgy keyboards, bringing in cheap but magnificent synthetic choirs. Jane Scarpantoni played the cello. Alexander Turnquist guested on the e-bow guitar. Erics wife Amy Rigby assisted on piano, banjo and vocal harmonies. Eric treated and manipulated the sounds the American musicians made as they were being recorded.