Shack - ‘ …The Corner of Miles and Gil’ (Sour Mash) Released 15/05/06

Since even your grandparents probably have an acquaintance with the bones of the Shack story by now, we won’t bore you with yet another account of studio fires, lost master tapes, drug addiction and patronage from generous believers. A far more relevant story right now is how they have come full circle in their pursuit of that elusive, revelatory moment that gave birth to the chiming beauty of their masterpiece, ‘Waterpistol’, and have damn near recaptured that magic in the process.   If 2003’s ‘Here’s Tom With The Weather’ captured a band a little too at ease with their art, ‘The Corner of Miles and Gil’ captures Mick Head, his brother John, the bedraggled Ian Templeton and scouse rock über-bassist Pete Wilkinson (reunited with the Head brothers for the first time since ‘Waterpistol’, and not without significance) rediscovering the music that brought them together in the first place and seeing into what wondrous shapes they can twist it.  Shack have always been a band to wear their record collections on their sleeve, but this has to be their most adventurous tribute to date.  Quite aside from the album title (a reference to the Heads’ heroes Miles Davis and his arranger Gil Evans), centre piece ‘Miles Away’ (yes, we get it) lifts directly from the jazz legend’s ‘All Blues’ (from the seminal ‘Kind of Blue’), whilst still keeping the raw acoustic soul of their band at the core.  It’s big, brave and gloriously out of sync with everything else that is being put out in 2006.    The same blue-note spirit weaves its way through all corners of this album, from John’s swinging solo chanson ‘New Day’ to the mesmeric ‘Black and White’, where the psychedelic jazz-folk of The Byrds is set alight by John’s most incendiary guitar work since ‘HMS Fable’’s ‘Streets Of Kenny’.  Even the curious ‘Funny Things’ invites Coltrane-esque sax lines into the mix, resulting in a dizzying blend of Gershwin and Zappa.