Luke Haines - Izzy Wizzy Let’s Get Bizzy

Over the past twenty plus years, Luke Haines has released albums from bands that have included The Servants, The Auteurs, Baader Meinhof and Black Box Recorder, along with solo albums and three with REM's Peter Buck and members of The Minus 5.  For his latest solo album, Izzy Wizzy Let’s Get Bizzy, he delves into the unlikely subject of the magic and magicians from the British children’s television of his youth in the sixties and seventies.  I will say that with a few exceptions there is very little here that most of us outside the UK will be familiar with, but that doesn’t detract from make this a highly enjoyable release.  The title track kicks things off and is a fun, almost hypnotic, psychedelic track with some great fuzzed out guitars.  The psychedelia continues on the next track, the laid-back “Mama Cass,” which is one of the aforementioned exceptions, with lyrics detailing the title subject teaming up with the Scooby Doo gang, something that is relatable over most of the globe (for those of you wanting to delve a little deeper here, Elliot was featured in the 1973 episode of The New Scooby-Doo Movies episode titled "The Haunted Candy Factory").  On “Death Card For The Kids,” he dips his toes into glam with more fuzzed out guitars and a stomping beat, while “Tommy Cooper - Chaos Magician,” and later on “TV’s On All The Time,” (with an HR Pufnstuf namecheck that us Americans will recognize) are very reminiscent of the quirkiness of Robyn Hitchcock. “Headchanger,” a song about Worzel Gummidge, a scarecrow with powers that change depending on which of his interchangeable heads he is using (?!?), is another fuzzed out psychedelic track with hints of glam. “Mum” is an upbeat little ditty at just over one minute that’s juxtaposed against dark and disturbing lyrics, while “The Omen 2” is a lilting acoustic track asking, “have you seen The Omen 2?” (apparently it was classified AA in the UK meaning it was suitable for 14-year-olds leading children to ask that question).  Following the folkier “The Standing Stones Of ITV” is “Mick Robertson Says,” a midtempo track, with a touch of glam, about the host of the children’s show Magpie, and the slower, more introspective “Spiritualist Church at 7.30pm Every Other Wednesday.” “Graham Bond Turned On His Mellotron” is a brief little tune of minimalist, swirling psychedelia about David Nixon, a magician and television personality, who also involved in the development and manufacture of the mellotron, and musician Graham Bond, the first rock musician to record using the instrument.  The slow and mysterious “Magic Shop,” along with a reprise of the title track, close the album out perfectly.

(Cherry Red Records)