Phil Dirt - Reverb Central - PO Box 1609, Felton, CA 95018-1609 USA Double Naught Spy Car - Danger High
 | This Double Naught Spy Car CD is an all instrumental journey through disturbing country, where the listener (that's you, Bucko) is lulled into passive acceptance by soft lap steel. Much on the cerebral side, yet directly connected to your last stay in the psycho ward, or fear of the next one. Lots of ideas and influences, from Earl Hagen to Rod Sterling. Not a drop of surf, but quite a day trip while waiting for the surf to rise. |
Picks: Danger High Fight Song, Danger High!, Lily St. Cyr, Macedonia 6-5000, What's Your Hurry?, Pork Rendr'ns, Helicopter, Possum Innards, Naked Lurch, Someone's Creeping In My Yard, Kay Sara Sarah, Crosseyed San Paku, Jimmy Carter, Marina del Hayride, The Mayor's Procession
Track by Track Review
Swank Detective (Instrumental)
You can just about smell the Teen Spirit as interesting percussion textures ride under a high school marching band arrangement. Egads!
Swank Detective (Instrumental)
Ah, rescued. Long sustained guitars playing against each other, with lap steel and swank post Santo and Johnny licks. A tasty track!
Swank Detective (Instrumental)
A bit of the old pomp and circumstance air floats across this Earl Hagen-esq track. Lumbering like the theme to Perry Mason, "Lily St. Cyr" sweetly plays sadness against loneliness in this beautiful track. Rich and flowing with TV detective suave.
Swank Detective (Instrumental)
Eerie and dangerous, "Macedonia 6-5000" employs echoplex effects and swirling charm in the opening, before rising to a whining lap steel epic tale of drama and screams in the night. very cool!
Swank Detective (Instrumental)
You might expect "What's Your Hurry?" to be a slow and lazy tune with no sense of urgency. You'd be right. Colorful and playful, it gentle goes where no man wants to go, but women can't wait to get in. Squishy, yet edgy.
Swank Detective (Instrumental)
Pluck and play, bounce and beat. Mere seconds long.
Swank Detective (Instrumental)
Wah wah polka, and an almost Klezmer feel. Totally playful and very cool.
Swank Detective (Instrumental)
Plucking strings, crying lap steel, dramatic drums, and dissonant dissent. "Possum Innards" is finger lickin' good! Makes you hungry just thinkin' about it!
Swank Detective (Instrumental)
Long bending lap steel notes softly lash against the night, bringing romance to the hobos sleeping under the pier. "Naked Lurch" is dramatic and disturbing. Thick and ominous, this song keeps you looking over your shoulder.
Someone's Creeping In My Yard Swank Detective (Instrumental)
Lap steel bachelor pad suave oozes from every corner of "Someone's Creeping In My Yard." Soft and slow, and intended as a trap for the softer sex.
Swank Picnic (Instrumental)
Delicate and metric, "Kay Sara Sarah" bounces with an inversion of the paraphrased fifties classic "Que Sera Sera." Very smooth and nearly liquid, with a tinge of country fried chicken, checkered picnic clothes, and gingham.
Swank Detective (Instrumental)
Angular and uneasy, "Crosseyed San Paku" is sad and off balance, with a very cool riff and arrangement.
Swank Detective (Instrumental)
Soft vibrato guitar throbs like someone else's migraine, delicately paced and under a minute long.
Swank Death Surf (Instrumental)
The sounds and structure employed remind me of seventies funk in the vein of David Axelrod's "The Auction." That's before the song arrives, because at that point "Marina del Hayride" becomes aquatic in a trapped on the bottom kinda way. Controlled panic and cerebral escape abound.
Swank Detective (Instrumental)
The march of the wooden politician lumbers past, with corn bread banjo and slinky lap steel. This is a long cerebral track, like you might hear in your room at night in the ward, like the songs no one else hears.