I’ve been waiting for this one for quite a while since the LP was announced and even more so since I was supposed to see him perform in Eindhoven this year at the Fuzz Club festival which of course will no longer happen. Sonic Boom aka Pete Kember needs no introduction as a founding member of Spacemen 3, Spectrum, and Experimental Audio Research. All Things… is his first solo release in almost 3 decades and in many ways picks up right where he left off. The electronics and bloops and bleeps could easily fit in on Spacemen 3’s final release Recurring or on any of his releases as Spectrum.
“Just Imagine” leads off sounding as if it was a continuation of the themes first released on Recurring all those years ago. “Just A Little Piece of Me” follows with a bit of that melancholy wistfulness we saw on Soul Kiss (Glide Divine) with it’s slower pace and analog drones. “Things Like This” picks things up a bit with a quicker pace and that familiar two-chord organ. “Spinning Coins and Wishing On Clovers” recalls a bit of the weirder side of Spectrum on Forever Alien with that same talking style and voice. “My Echo, My Shadow and Me” continues on this same patch, again recalling “Songs for Owsley”. “On A Summers Day” brings us back to the familiar slower pace and more traditional song structure before leading into the more peppy “The Way That You Live” (For some reason I can’t get the video for this one out of my head when I listen) If there’s going to be a standout single off this LP it’s going to be this track. “Tawlkin Tekno” is a very analog sounding track with some strange pacing and vocoder work and is probably the most distant sounding track from his past work. “I Can See Light Bend” also has a bit of a newer sound to it and has a bit of nervous energy about it.. The album closes with “I Feel A Change Coming On” a longer track that in many ways recalls a bit of Les Big Byrd in its vocal stylings and driving beat.
Overall a very solid effort. Although it many ways part of this record seems like it was perhaps written in the past that’s not always a bad thing and in the case of Sonic Boom and the fact that we have not heard from him for so long it’s probably a good thing. He does give us enough new ground to work with here. The LP was released on CarPark on several variations including the beautiful red glow vinyl that I received along with two other variants. The packaging is also quite nice with the posters, prints, and metallic jacket.
