It's tough, being in a successful band. You have to tour the world, spending time on tour buses, planes and in hotel rooms. It's a life that's highly regimented, organised by tour managers who keep their artists to a strict schedule of travel, soundchecks, rehearsals and concerts, the timetable broken occasionally by the excitement of TV appearances, radio sessions and press interviews.
Echo and the Bunnymen keyboard player Paul Fleming turned the experience of one world tour into an album. Recording on a laptop with whatever instruments were to hand, he created an album that's as atmospheric as you'd expect from an ex-Bunnyman. It's also named after a notorious pub in Liverpool, hometown to the 80s band.
Baltic Fleet was inspired directly by that world tour, from Boston and Barcelona to Berlin and back to Brighton. It was written in moments stolen from a strict schedule, and then refined in a studio where Fleming worked with Klaxons producer Nick Terry
Some tracks wear their inspiration on their sleeve, like 48 Hour Drive (Boston), Berlin 8mm Deep and Rekjavik Promise.
Other tracks use different textures to evoke a sense of place, from the
autobahn rhythm of Black Lounge to Castellon, sounding like a moody
film soundtrack.
Pebble Shore is a sparse, shifting soundtrack that could have been inspired by an hour on a wintery Worthing beach.
And Red Skies and Factories sounds industrial, with a simple piano against an epic backdrop and a driving rhythm.
It's a dramatic album, full of minimalist rhythms and sweeping
melodies. It has a strong rhythmic feel, which has brought comparisons
with Can, Kraftwerk and other German bands. But it could be filed next
to Eric Satie as easily as David Bowie or Brian Eno. A soundtrack to a
very personal film.
Baltic Fleet's album is out now on Blow Up Records, and is available from Revolutionary Music, 9 Warwick Lane, Worthing.
http://www.artistsandmakers.com/article.php/2008070209202276