A Fantastically Trippy Trip
Now, we know that you've been wanting to know what an esoteric pop opera in three parts might sound like for some time. That's why, it's with no small pleasure that we are able to return to you and report back with the findings from our grand discovery... Pepe Deluxe's "Queen of the Wave". It's a positively glamorous adventure through cosmic worlds and vivid imaginations as you get to experience funk, pop and flashes of the bizarre in a thoroughly original twelve track treat.
Shall we explain? Well, the record is apparently thematically based around one of the 19th Century's most enigmatic novels by Frederick S Oliver, entitled 'A Dweller On Two Planets'. In an innovative move, Pepe Deluxe have taken this text of intrepid sci-fi voyaging and put it into song. It really is exactly as wonderfully bizarre as it sounds. Stuffed full of drama, colour and intrigue, you won't have heard anything like it before.
Innovative thought is coupled with innovative creativity as Pepe's main man, known as 'James Spectrum', is really rather partial to dabbling with the unusual when it comes to making music. Finding ways of making new sounds reflects the spirit of discovery that tells the story of the record as our hero Zailm (as listed in the CD's cast list of 'characters') goes on astral journeys to Venus and investigates life in Atlantis.
The fascinating step-by-step analysis detailing each track's production and themes has a novel charm that's irresistible to those of us with a penchant for the off-kilter and quirky. You become intrinsically involved as soon as you hear the initial chords of the Tesla coil synthesizer that opens a dimensional gateway to another world in first track 'Queensway'. What follows is an engaging experience of trippy instrumentals and charismatic vocals. We loved it.
We would love to tell you more... but we don't want to spoil the ending. If kooky storytelling is your thing, you're going to want to listen to this. It's nuts.