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Benedict Jackson

PAUL ROLAND – MORBID BEAUTY (Blue Matter Records LP) (2024)

Thanks to NICK SALOMAN for the opportunity to listen to another new release from his Blue Matter label. The album starts with ‘Stars in their Millions’, Roland’s soft voice suiting the cerebral, psychedelic, ‘eastern’ sound of music exploring the “fathomless abyss” and “cosmic consummation”. A change in style comes on ‘Graveyard Train’, based on a blues rock guitar riff with a rockabilly type of beat, a GROUNDHOGS type doomy heavy guitar riff to finish off. ‘Candyman’ has a Stephen King horror aspect to it, a sinister piece about midnight trains and crossroads, evocative and quite unique. On the dazzling ‘The Light Divine’ Roland takes a “journey to the centre of your mind, leaving yourself and reality behind”, a portentous two-note bass line providing a backdrop to some dynamic drumming, added to Roland’s guitar and violin (which pops up occasionally to good effect). The album ends with the longest track, ‘Godzilla’, depicted by fuzz bass to guitar soloing, with sparse piano chords and a familiar chord pattern to underline the melodrama, sombre violin an essential ingredient to this impressionistic piece.


I must admit I hadn’t heard Paul Roland before and, on this evidence, need to find out more. “Morbid Beauty” is an intriguing album well worth investigating.

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