The original Irish indie experimentalist, Stano’s unorthodox, avant-garde approach set him apart from almost everyone else on the 1980s Dublin scene but garnered huge respect and critical acclaim at the time. His seminal 1986 album, Content To Write In I Dine Weathercraft remains a classic of a genre he created all by himself. Now also a visual artist of note, he continues to release albums with the same individualistic approach, seemingly oblivious to commercial concerns.
Despite his reputation as a creator of inaccessible and dense pieces, this collection of instrumentals, recorded with help from some seasoned musicians, is surprisingly and unexpectedly "mainstream" and works on several levels.
A standard rock template informs the wonderfully-named 'Chapelizard’, which is all metallic guitars, taut rhythms and which has a genuinely memorable melody; 'Yellow Bittern'(featuring Lir’s Colm Quearney on guitar) is a compelling slice of indie that hints at Television, New Order and The Cure among others, while he turns to Kraftwerk-style Euro electronica with impressive results on 'Green Rocks of Turkey Electronik'and 'Ghost Pippet Red’. Changing tack again, 'Sleep Robin'is almost elegiac with gentle strings and piano building into a dramatic climax.
A jazz-fusion approach is adopted on 'Frog'which features Thin Lizzy legend Brian Downey on drums, as does the terrific 'Reverse Presence'– which sounds like a Lalo Schifrin 1970s cop show theme, filtered through Eno’s production hands. Vocals would have worked on several tracks here and might have made things even more interesting. But then, it wouldn’t be Stano!