“Kiran Leonard (No 1,520)

He’s 17 and supremely, eclectically gifted – meet the Manc mutha of invention”

Hometown: Dobcross, Oldham.

The lineup: Kiran Leonard (vocals, instruments).

The background: Kiran Leonard is a singer-songwriter from near Manchester, but another kid busker with a soulful voice he ain’t. Record companies searching for the next Ed Sheeran can probably look away now (he’s not even the next Ed Harcourt, although that’s a lot closer). One of the tracks on his album, Bowler Hat Soup – which isn’t even his debut, despite the fact he’s only 17 – sounds like a hardcore band playing a show tune. Others remind us of Ariel Pink in a tussle with Aphex Twin, and Van Dyke Parks if he were remaking Song Cycle less as a tumble of musicals and Americana and more as a jumble of music hall and Monty Python.

Needless to say, Leonard is more Frank Zappa than Frank Turner. Bowler Hat Soup includes 16 tracks and features Leonard playing everything bar a swordfish trombone, from the usual piano and guitar to a grill. There are as many ideas as there are instruments (22 at last count, give or take a cajón and a mandolin). Hell, his press release contains more ideas than most records by people twice his age. He describes his album as “a hexadecagonal pseudo-fortress of occasionally caustic and semi-illiterate pop nonsense” and, employing a decidedly regal third-person, “suspects the whole thing is a little schizophrenic and relentless” while tacitly acknowledging the benefits of such qualities. He is “a firm believer in the exponential curve that connects the power and excellence of a show with its number of drummers” and “claims his music is capable of causing uncontrollable bouts of hysteria”.

We’re not laughing, we’re gawping. At this boy – signed to producer Paul Epworth’s sister Mary’s label – who knows how to spell Nietzsche and leitmotif, and who, not surprisingly, has been described by sources we trust as “freakishly savantish”. His music, as we say, moves rapidly between prog-pop, scuzz-rock and a dozen other places, some of which have no name. From the baroque tumult that is opener Dear Lincoln to the closing track, A Purpose, performed on an 1898 American reed organ, there is no let-up. It is psych-cabaret one minute, avant-chamber pop the next. There are handclaps and harmoniums, and an agglomeration of non-rock styles that posit Leonard as a sort of teenage Brit Van Dyke. There’s No Future in Us is a mad Ariel Pink hurtle wherein Leonard’s voice is treated not so much to Auto-Tune as Manual Distort. Oakland Highball is metal vaudeville or acoustic thrash.

Apparently, his previous album opened with a 26-minute prog-jazz opus called the Big Fish. We’re actually scared to check it out. Before that, he made electronic music under the name Pend Oreille. Not for nothing have some suspected Leonard is some kind of brilliant hoaxer. Either way, you want to applaud him. “I have never attempted anything this complex or grandiose,” he says. He explains that lyrically he “began to semantically group certain themes – songs about my family and friends, of love and war, and also alcohol consumption” – as he progressed. He adds: “To have finally seen its completion is an overwhelming and wonderful feeling.” We can only imagine.

The buzz: “Jesus, what a talent.”

The truth: We doff our (bowler) hats to this young chap.

Most likely to: Pend belief.

Least likely to: Sign to a major.

What to buy: Bowler Hat Soup will be released by Hand Of Glory on a limited run of 300 vinyl records on 26 August.

File next to: Ed Harcourt, Rufus Wainwright, Frank Zappa, Harry Nilsson.

Links: kiranleonard.bandcamp.com.

“In the Bandcamp introduction to “Dear Lincoln”, Kiran Leonard lays out some caveats for prospective listeners: “I was 14 and uneducated, hence my mispronunciation (and pretentious namedropping) of friedrich NEECHsher. i also fucked up lEETmotif. but as far as anyone is concerned, the mistakes are obviously ironic.” His insistence upon irony is the only faintly juvenile thing about this majestic, freakishly savant-ish song; Leonard is now 17, and resides in Oldham, near Manchester, and as a resident thereof, I feel entirely justified in telling you just how dull it is here. Conversely, “Dear Lincoln” is a wondrous, sub-two-minute blast of shambolic, lo-fi piano rambling and smashed cymbal fog that would have been entirely at home on Elephant 6 in its heyday, recalling early of Montreal, Elf Power– and a Joanna Newsom-like way with words and intonation rendered in the wiry voice of a manic teenage boy.

Leonard says the song’s about mental health and the concept of tabula rasa, though it’s hard to follow the lyrics without guidance– he sings as if playing the piano from Big, sprinting up and down the keys while yelping at least one word for every note. There’s so much raw, unadulterated delight here; the way he uses a single word as the join between bars, breaking it over his knee before scurrying into another mad verse, spewing lines like, “the walls of coffin beds begin to topple with flames, scream names,” in some nameless panic. It is without a doubt the most invigorating song I’ve heard all year. One more time: he wrote it when he was 14 years old.”

Laura Snapes, Pitchfork

Here’s a news feature from 1977 detailing it’s development , followed by an excerpt from their ‘Consequences’ lp, that heavily featured the instrument.

Discovered this mindmelting version of the Jimmy Webb song yesterday. What a killer arrangement! This has jumped straight to the top of my 45 wantslist. Anyone got a copy they’d part with?

Mary Kent – Lost Generation

The most obvious examples of this for me would be the four early seventies Beach Boys albums- which despite some incredible moments, barely charted into the ‘hundreds’ in the US.

Beyond these- which have since entered the canon of classic albums- are records by The Tokens, Association and Turtles, which despite being incredible records by household names, don’t seem to attract anywhere near the same sort of attention. This has lead to many awkward silences for me personally, where enthusing about records by these bands to fellow sixties heads has lead to bemused looks followed by ‘what- the Wimoweh guys?’, and disbelief.

So- here are some great moments, from chart topping bands who deserve to be known for more than Happy Together, The Lion Sleeps Tonight, and Windy.

The Turtles- Love in the city

This was released worldwide as a single in 1969, but didn’t really achieve the success it deserved, despite, to me sounding like a more poppy and commercial version of Forever Changes era Love.

The Tokens- Waiting for something

This is from The Tokens unreleased 1968 lp ‘Intercourse’. A limited release was apparently made in 1972, but I’ve never seen a copy of that pressing for sale, nor heard of anyone that owns it. It remained widely unheard until the current Revola release.

The Tokens/Cross Country- Just A Thought

After The Tokens split, 3/4 of them reconvened as Cross Country. Their low key cover of midnight hour was a hit, but the whole record is great. A perfect blend of sunshine pop vocals and flanged folky country rock.

Here is a Spotify playlist of some further tracks which are unavailable on Youtube. Check it out! The Association sounding like vocal era Eno! (Goodbye Forever) The Turtles singing cutting anti war songs in their Laurel Canyon period (we ain’t gonna party no more)

http://open.spotify.com/user/alanmusgrave/playlist/5BZ3GkGul71Nwutbl47Jmp

In addition to this, if you’ve enjoyed The Tokens tracks, I’d encourage you to check out the unheard Mitch Margo demos at www.becoolrecords.com/records

These are very much floating my boat at the moment- fitting into the Don Agrati/Dennis Wilson/Robb Kunkel/Emitt Rhodes/Curt Boettcher/Ned Doheny seventies LA solo artist canon, whilst also having a surprising synthy, Ariel Pink vibe (Love Today, Dirty Dog) in places. Great stuff.

The often slightly more ‘showbiz’ and big band aspects to the arrangements add a campy and delirious sense of fun that is quite different to the US originators.

That said- Britain could and did rock with the best of them, despite perceived wisdom to the contrary.

Big Fat Mama: Roy Young- this has it all! Screaming vocal, big band slumming it, a pleasingly distorted production, and of course, the obligatory girly bvs. Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y_AUSQYVWHc

Here’s a Johnny Kidd B-side from ’61 that even more epitomises the ‘arranged’ side of UK RnR without compromising the excitement for a minute.

Obviously ‘Shakin all Over’ is rightfully considered a classic, but pretty much all his singles have at least one highly worthy side, and this is my favourite.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PC4-rOTeVk4

Up next is Eden Kane’s ‘New Kind of Lovin’, proving even the often dismissed early sixties pop puppets had something to offer.

This was on the flip of his biggest hit, and is therefore a super common 50p single just about everywhere.

I love the tone of his voice. Even on the ‘pop’ A-side ‘forget me not’ he sounds not too far from the slack jawed warble of Phil May.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VFozfZQpRnw

Dave Carey led Jazz groups from the drums in the fifties, and had a couple of novelty records on Philips before joining their A&R department and working with Kaleidoscope, amongst others. The most common of his Philips single is the truly awful ‘Bingo’, but after that came this facemelter- ‘Drum Beat’.

An actual video now. Lonnie Donegan isn’t a name that would necessarily spring to my mind as a purveyor of acoustic guitar shredding, but check this out.

Also notice the great musicianship of his band. There’s definitely more ‘schooling’ gone on here than you’d expect given the relative simplicity of the song structures, but when the band gets to solo…check out the drums!

I love the way the guitarist unleashes some super technical playing with just a ‘yep, I know’ smirk…just awesome.

One more for now- Derry Hart and the Hartbeats- come on baby

For me this is the perfect blend of showbiz and pounding.

Even though there’s a horn section, this doesn’t sound like the hipsters on a Little Richard record…there’s something strangely formal about the playing.

Similarly with Derry Harts vocal- even though he’s screaming in the best Little Richard style, theres something pleasingly…West Country(?) to his accent.

A great record, and of course, another B-side.

If you’ve enjoyed these tracks, there are a fair few comps of this stuff about, and with the inherent snobbery surrounding UK Rock and Roll, plus the relative obscurity (or overlooked plentifulness) the original records won’t often stretch to wallet hurting prices.

I’d read that the Beach Boys took the custom made tape delay responsible for the ‘do it again’ drum sound on the road with them but never heard the evidence until now.

It’s not unusual to hear treated drums these days, but this was 1969, and even fuzz pedals had only been around for five years or so, so these drums must have sounded like something from another planet!

*I make no apologies for starting the clip early enough to hear Mike Love’s onstage campery. I love Mike Love*

On a similar Beach Boys tech note- my jaw is pretty much on the floor after reading an interview with their engineer of the time- Stephen Desper where he recounted that the sped up sounding chipmunk voices on ‘She’s Going Bald’ were created using a an analogue tape pitch shifter- allowing him to create the effect of sped up voices, whilst keeping the speed the same.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ix1-Coa7qQQ&feature=player_detailpage#t=50s

And here’s  a link to an article on the device used by Wendy Carlos. What a mind blowing machine.

http://www.wendycarlos.com/other/Eltro-1967/index.html

He said “Dim the lights”, and I will also add “Turn the volume up”.

This documentary Inside Pop – The Rock Revolution (a CBS News special) is legendary in Beach Boys circles for featuring Smile era footage of Brian Wilson singing ‘Surf’s Up’ alone at a grand piano.

I’d wanted to see the full programme for ages, but it was impossible to track down, and rumoured to be lost apart from snippets. It’s now up on youtube in 6 parts.

Features music by The Left Banke, Janis Ian, Hermans Hermits, and some great interviews with hip young things.