Pointing Paw by Nathan Hall and the Sinister Locals

“Pointing Paw” is the 5th album from Nathan Hall and the Sinister Locals!

Originally it was to be released towards the end of 2020, but Covid lockdown prevented bassist Michael Bailey from coming down to Cardiff to record. This resulted in me putting together the album “On the blink” with me playing bass on all but 2 tracks. Mike has forgiven me. I just had to get some music out into the world last year. Sanity demanded it.

Finally “Pointing Paw” is finished. It is stuffed with psych pop tunes featuring all sorts of vintage keyboards and electronics and short stories, and by our standards is a quite compact album.

Side 1

Covid claustrophobia is tackled by “Cabin Fever”. “Sasquatch!” is a song for children and adults alike about the dangers of tacky commercialisation. “The Summons Serene” is a joyous mantra about the magnetic powers of my favourite walking haunts, such as Garth Mountain and Nash Point Lighthouse. “Catholic College” is a Spaghetti Western influenced recounting of an awful job interview blown up into epic proportions. “Hornet’s Nest” is a memo to myself to stop doing stupid things (don’t ask!), and musically reminds me of “Loaded” era Velvet Underground. “Love Long Gone” is a sad little Brian Wilson influenced short hymn. “Monsters of Monday” could be as basic as having a hangover on a Sunday and dreading the working week in melodramatic hungover fashion, or something much darker.

Side 2

“Tarantula!” to me sounds like it should be in a Tarantino film. Possibly about female assassins but it’s a bit late for Kill Bill. Tongue in cheek but played totally straight and with total conviction. “Insurrection” is a bit of an epic song suite with a nod to The Monkees in the verse, full of twangy guitar and Fender Rhodes riffs, but a much darker feel in the floating chorus. I like to write reverse songs now and again where the verse is action packed and the chorus breaks down and just floats. “Born to be wild” by Steppenwolf is another example. “Wooden Eyelids” is another mantra that builds and builds with some sub bass to shake your speakers. “The Moon Has Surely Seen It All Before” is another epic, packed with dark ruminations on the horrors the moon must have witnessed going on down here and what his (or her!) thoughts might be about them, with all sorts of ominous sound effects embedded throughout. “God’s Magistrate” is my 19th century Wild West avenger fantasy. With prog pop time changes. “Birds, Bees, Flowers and Trees” is a darker song with a similar theme, with a Star Chamber removing evildoers as they see fit. “Tequila (The Worm That Turned)” is a quite hypnotic chorus with short story interludes. The third “rough justice” song in a row, although this one does not end in fatalities, just hallucinations and copious vomiting. Serves him right for eating the poor worm. The album ends with “The Wedding”, which is one the most atmospheric and bare tracks we have ever released. Full of space and spooky little sounds, and inspired by walks around Cathays Cemetery in Cardiff.

REVIEW BY ELEDIR SEREN FOR UNIVERSAL MIND DECODER
One of the reasons I’m drawn to psychedelic music is that, by its very nature, it has to be clever; it has to have that something extra going on – an extra bit of reverb, or a backwards guitar, or tape loops or some studio trickery – but something clever, nevertheless. Not all clever music is psychedelic, of course, but all psychedelic music must be clever.

The Beatles – my first musical loves – managed to have way with a good tune and be clever at the same time, which is why they’ve remained a constant presence in my life and I am, of course, particularly fond of their psychedelic period which began with Rain in 1966 and finished at some point during the making of The White Album some two years later (although Abbey Road has some lovely embellishments). Can anything be cleverer or prettier than A Day In The Life, say, or Strawberry Fields? In fact, that whole period is awash with gorgeous, pretty songs – The Stones’, She’s A Rainbow, Pink Floyd’s See Emily Play, The Byrds’ Change Is Now, The Beach Boys’ Good Vibrations – these are my touchstones, my reference points, for judging whether I like new music or not – is it as pretty as Penny Lane? Is it as clever as Tomorrow Never Knows? As far out as I Am The Walrus? – all of which brings us nicely to Nathan Hall, the only person who has ever asked me to write about his music.

We have history, Nathan and I, although I doubt he knows it. His debut album with The Soft Hearted Scientists, Uncanny Tales From The Everyday Undergrowth, released back in 2005 (it’s really a collection of the band’s first three EP’s) remains one of my favourite albums of all time (up there with Love’s Forever Changes in my unsolicited opinion) but I couldn’t tell you why – only that the songs are irresistibly pretty and clever and undeniably psychedelic. Since that release he has been one of the few artists from whom I will buy anything that they choose to release. Having released some five or six further albums since their debut (what with the occasional collection of demos and the odd compilation album) that estimable band seems to be on some kind of hiatus but Nathan Hall, not one to let the grass grow beneath his feet, has been emitting albums as Nathan Hall and The Sinister Locals ever since, and, with the release of Pointing Paw a few weeks ago, we have arrived at his fifth release under this moniker. I understand that it was due to be released last year but the UK’s Covid lockdown prevented SHS bassist from travelling to Cardiff to record with him (I think he may be the sinister local). Having been released from those hopefully temporary constrictions the album finally sees the light of the day, allowing Nathan to manumit his singular psych-tinged vision upon the world.

The first thing I ought to say, given my somewhat lengthy preamble, is that the album is packed with pretty, clever psych-pop tunes and ticks all the right boxes with regards to the milkman being able to give them a good whistle. Whilst not overtly psychedelic the songs are funny, playful and whimsical, and, whilst I’m loath to use Syd Barrett as a reference point, these songs clearly exist in the same universe as Syd’s Love You and It’s No Good Trying, had Barrett been able to add Hall’s love for vintage keyboards, synths, effects, electronics, drones and percussion to the mix. He also has a very Beatle-esque way with a tune, although one that leans more towards McCartney’s melodicism than Lennon’s acerbic rawness. In fact, the songs have the same sense of delicate refinement as that of a chamber orchestra – these songs do not wig-out, but rather exist in their own self-contained worlds, eschewing traditional song structure, but propelled along with a melodic playfulness that seeks, as Hall himself notes on his Bandcamp page, the same confusion of the senses that a prime Beach Boys track does. Lyrically, the songs explore tales of Covid claustrophobia, the dangers of tacky commercialism, disastrous job interviews, melodramatic hangovers at the beginning of the working week, revenge fantasies, spooky stone circles, what the moon might think about the horrible things the human race gets up to beneath her benign gaze, and, on the gnomic Hornet’s Nest, a list of stupid things to not do; musically they take in Brian Wilson-inspired hymnals (Love Long Gone), Morricone-esque spaghetti Western vibes (Catholic College), prog-pop time changes (God’s Magistrate), baroque orchestral flourishes and hypnotic mantras (Wooden Eyelids), with nods to The Monkees (Insurrection – Malice in the Palace) and Loaded-era Velvet Underground (Hornet’s Nest – my favourite track on the album). The overall sound, though, is one of charmed pastoral restraint which is both gently psychedelic and bucolic. I make no claims to synaesthesia, but I tend to see music in colour – if I had to pick a colour to describe Pointing Paw, I would tell you that it bathes in the colour of light through a stained-glass window, or the dissolute colours of a peacock’s feathers. Nathan Hall and The Sinister Locals have released enough albums now that I’m able to start picking favourites, and Pointing Paw is certainly the best thing they’ve done since their debut release Effigies, back in 2017 - which isn’t to say I haven’t enjoyed listening to the others enormously, but these are fully-realised, warm-hearted affairs full of ravishing wordplay, psych-pop melodies and spooky electronic sound effects. Hugely enjoyable.

Available to download, stream or buy from Bandcamp

REVIEW BY ANDREW YOUNG AT TERRASCOPE

NATHAN HALL & THE SINISTER LOCALS – POINTING PAW

(The Hip Replacement CD’s are available from www.nathanhallandthesinisterlocals.bandcamp.com )

Former front man for the Soft Hearted Scientists has released another solo album with his Sinister Locals. I think that lockdown must have played a huge part in its creation; indeed the album starts with ‘Cabin Fever’, a pleasant ditty about the effects of isolation. ‘Sasquatch’, follows this, it’s a tale of a bored Sasquatch who wanders into town, and it’s full of squiggles and dense with keyboards and tootling mellotron and informs us that he has more likes on his social media site than Kim Kardashian. ‘The Summons Serene’ is a spoken word tale about Nathan’s local walking spots, featuring acoustic slide guitar. ‘Catholic College’, is full of Spaghetti Western moves and concerns a failed job interview. The title track ‘Pointing Paw’, is rich with organ and eastern drones, this is followed by ‘Hornet’s Nest’, a song highlighting a few of the stupid things Nathan has done and how to keep quiet about them. Kitchen sink do it yourself Brian Wilson melodies abound in Love Long Gone. The first side ends with ‘Monster Of Monday’, a song we can all get onboard with, especially after a long weekend.

Side two begins with ‘Tarantula’, Nathan’s attempt at a Tarantino score featuring killer female assistants; it’s sharp and punchy as is the next song ‘Insurrection (Malice In The Palace), full of twangy guitars and hand claps with nods to the Monkees. ‘Wooden Eyelids’ is another of the playful haiku like mantra’s that I associate with Nathan. One of the album’s highlights is next with the dark ruminations of ‘The Moon Has Surely Seen It All Before’, a keyboard infested song of goings on in the dark. ‘God’s Magistrate’, a tricksy, proggy number set in the 1800’s. Gambler’s, sinners, drinkers and adulterers get their comeuppance on ‘Birds, Bees, Flowers and Trees’. More retribution and judgement follows with ‘Tequila (The Worm That Turned)’, it is not really factually correct, as the worm is to be found in its rougher cousin Mezcal, still it features hallucinations and ends with vomiting, nice. The record ends with a sparse, spooky ‘The Wedding’, a song which is inspired by Nathan’s walks around Cathays cemetery in Cardiff.

(Andrew Young)

4 STAR REVIEW IN SHINDIG! MAGAZINE JANUARY 2022
NATHAN HALL & THE SINISTER LOCALS Pointing Paw
****
Soft Hearted Scientists frontman Nathan Hall and his Sinister Locals (the singular Michael Bailey on bass) return with Pointing Paw, a post-lockdown psych-pop treat brimming with folk-horror imagery. ‘The Summons Serene’ extols us to “walk four times round the burial mound” while the Eastern-tinged title track namechecks “suburban sorcerers” and “allotment ghosts” before concluding ominously with beckoning “haunted waters”. The humour is equally black, with ‘Hornet’s Nest’ breezily advising against telling a serial killer he is second best. Tune-wise, there’s a bewildering eclecticism which remains recognisably from the same pen. Thus, we have the baroque-pop of ‘Wooden Eyelids’; the Morricone-inspired ‘Catholic College’; ‘Tarantula’, a newly-unearthed imaginary theme tune to some impossibly hip late ’60s James Franciscus cop show; a lo-fi ‘In My Room’ in the dreamy ‘Love Long Gone’, and ‘Insurrection’, which suggests Hall missed the ‘Last Train To Clarksville’ and never quite got over it.
Peter Gallagher

The music mixes psychedelia with baroque touches, and analogue electronics and seeks to create the same confusion of the senses that a prime Beach Boys track does. Is it summer or is it Christmas? Neither. Its both simultaneously. The lyrics walk the dark side of Sunny Psychedelia Street and know that all is not well with the world. Burning effigies and suicidal Ice Road Truckers all feature.

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