Mini-album from experimental troupe.
Born from the efforts of 26 year old Lancastrian Daniel Patrick Quinn, One More Grain is a rather odd sounding affair. The vocals are spoken word in Quinn's strong northern accent, giving the impression these are less songs and more his monologues of observations about modern life.
The music is something of a Christmas stocking of surprises; with opener 'A Shout in the Street' begins slowly with a very jazzy introduction of brass instruments. It's less a shout and more of a polite, quintessentially English "I'm terribly sorry to bother you but I'd rather like you to listen to my song". Once the vocals begin the laidback tone continues, as Quinn rambles sometimes incoherently about crows flying nearby and little else, all presented in a rather drunken sounding style.
'Tropical Mother in Law' also makes use of the brass, but this time with more of an edgy note to things as a result of the screeching of strings and whining of brass in the background. 'Against King Moron' sees the tempo picking up a little, with more of a blustering trumpet sound and lyrics with more substance which seem to be about the people in power being morons, hmmm, that sounds like familiar territory. 'Northern' deals with travelling and observing people and meanders along at a similar pace to its predecessors. One More Grain are employing an interest style and approach to song writing but so far lack the conviction to create anything truly boundary defying.
This mini-album works adequately as background listening as its jazzy air is suitably relaxed and works in the sense that it washes over you and then quickly sweeps itself away. There is nothing inherently bad to say about 'Pigeon English' but none of the songs here really manage to be memorable or striking either. And so it is that One More Grain fall into the 'adequate but far from spectacular' category and appear destined to stay there unless they manage to deliver something more remarkable in the future.