The Ken Experiment are a drummer-free acoustic duo comprising civil servants Nigel Brown and Gary Salisbury from Kewaigue in the Isle Of Man, with occasional contributions from Lorraine Pownall on bodhrán and whistles. Their name is taken from the alleged female habit of removing the trousers of doll Ken (friend of Barbie) in search of his manhood. Maybe that only happens over there. But enough intellectualism, what do they sound like, with or without the trousers?

What they trade in is intelligently-wrought, string-driven contemporary indie-folk of the variety peddled successfully by the likes of Emmet Tinley or Damien Rice. There are occasional blues flashes too, including some fine harmonica blasts on ‘Good Times’. ‘Everyday Blues’ is sturdily well-played and sung, as is ‘Lifetime Away’ and despite being recorded in Gary’s house, the overall sound is crisp and clear. If they worked a little harder, they might be something really interesting. A little less Ken and some more Experiment might give their approach a keener, Barbier edge than it has here.
I feel Belle North is a little late with her Alanis Morrissette angst-ridden approach, although she has a fine voice and packs a mean acoustic guitar style. ‘Doll Rich Farm’ is too long, and has a weak chorus and a melody that meanders about a bit as if trying to find its way back to the song, whereas ‘Magic On The Street’ is virtually the reverse: short, snappy, to the point and with a repeated title line that inches its way into your cranium. ‘Girls Of Arles’, I reckon, might work better on the page as a poem rather than in the rambling, monotone delivery it gets here. Belle needs to find her own voice and lose all those dated influences and then we might see sparks fly.
A similar lack of originality infects the demo from Luke Chad, who has a deep and sepulchral voice that’s a bit too much like Nick Cave for comfort. Even the title ‘Death Hanging Over Me’, never mind its torpid pace, emphasises the gloomy approach, with a sombre solo piano accompaniment underpinning Chad’s graveyard vocal style. ‘Select And Remove’ tells the tale of a random serial killer, but the song has too many verses and too feeble a chorus to work well. ‘Holy Saint Pope’ is an attack on the Catholic Church, but while the lyric is angry and heartfelt it barely works as a song. I would personally like to hear Luke take the songs closer to monologue territory, as I fear he’ll just be another doom-meister in the shadow of a master if he continues like this.
The Hooks are a feisty loud guitar band from Sligo whose vocals on the terrifically manic ‘She’s So Fat’ (which they claim is about a well-known politician) are hopelessly lost in an awful mix. ‘All Across The World’ is thankfully more sedate, with a great anthemic melody that wouldn’t be out of place in the hands of The Pogues or The Waterboys. The Hooks could well be onto something important, but they need to learn to record more cleanly so that whatever it is they are about gets across more easily without the murk.
Isinglas, from Cork, are tight, confident and well-rehearsed, but don’t necessarily offer anything that might be filed under ‘new’. Their youthful exuberance stands them in good stead on ‘What I Choose Is My Choice’ and ‘Treason’; the over-long ‘Anon’ is a dreamier outing, more subtle, and more adventurous. Guest singer Julie sounds like a really good bet. They should call her up for active duty today. b