Rob Noxious
Retro Supremo⭐
‘Surf Arcana & The August Hotel’, the latest digital download release from Phil Burdett conveys a hugely evocative and personal journey of discovery, loss and reflection on the ‘Thames Riviera’ at Southend-on-Sea and its coastal promenade via the Crowstone in Chalkwell to its west end at “old Cockle Row” in Leigh-on-Sea.
PB (as he abbreviates his name in the booklet accompanying the album download) has produced this rich album with all its instruments, effects (of sea, seagulls and rushing trains) and vocals. The Essex Troubadour is in great voice, particularly on ‘Walking Down South By The Water’, ‘Big Old Sky’ and ‘Railway Flowers/August Hotel Revisited’ and I loved the horns that accompanied his vocals on the former and latter tracks.
I believe that most of the tracks for this album were written a few years ago when Phil reflected on his arrival to the seaside town (as was) and I felt the thrill of discovery from the opening track ‘Magic Tearoom’ where “the 50s come back here” whilst this scene-setter hints at the faded glories of Southend’s day-tripper heyday juxtaposed with the high volume of a “heavy road” as “1989 explodes”. It’s followed by the lovely jazz feel (no slight intended) of ‘Walking Down South By The Water’ which conveys a feeling of liberation “in the kingdom of the free” down by the seaside where “there are so many boats untied”.
Another early track, ‘Windsurfer Girl’, consolidates the sense of seaside optimism with its Beach Boys echoes (from 'Sloop John B') in the song’s introduction and it continues in this vein of “beachcombing in the sun” away from erstwhile experiences of “suicidal telephones & hangers-on” but there is a hint of darker tides to come with a slowed-down ‘outro’ echo of Sloop John B’s line of “this is the worst trip I’ve ever been on.”
The sea-change track takes place midway through the album in ‘For The Ebb Tide’ when we are introduced to Boo, who previously featured as a character in PB’s debut novel ‘Maledictus’. Boo is the narrator’s companion (and we presume lover too) who he wants to get him home after he has been sleeping by the pier following their fight the previous night. Phil adopts his Tom Waits-type growl for this track and references the couple’s preferred picks from the juke box with “five songs for 50p” at the seafront’s Hope Hotel. However, the hope that brought them to the shore looks to be on the wane though as he speaks of his knowledge of “the storms to come” and how the “mad moon in your sad brown eyes … drags the ebb tide.”
In the latter part of the album, the atmospheric ‘Lodestone Mountain Pilgrimage Alias Pier Hill & Seaway’ points to a darker future when Madame Pharaoh foretells of “a noose waiting for my neck”. ‘Big Old Sky’, a short and poetic contemplation on seasonal change and life changes, is a powerful stand-alone track that I can picture hearing on a discerning radio-style show. In the story within the album though, I noted that Boo has not featured explicitly since ‘For The Ebb Tide’ and the concluding tracks, ‘Railway Flowers/August Hotel Revisited’ (“If I only knew then - way back when …”) and ‘Crowstone’ (“I knew it was impossible love … ah, but it was almost enough”) signify reminiscences and reflection of what was and what is now. Both tracks have a strong sense of wistfulness about them and the Crowstone is the repository of the “nostalgia & sadness” of “what I left behind on my own …”
This is another of Phil’s albums which is best listened to in the cans. It’s also one that repays several replays before you get hit by its emotional force. I salute PB’s ability to reconfigure a shelved musical project to form this moving amalgamation of old and new tracks in their poetic depiction of seaside charm, personal perambulations and bittersweet remembrance.
You can find ‘Surf Arcana & The August Hotel’ via PB’s website: -> https://philburdett.com/album/25294...r5PRY3D54_zK27utwVamb0NYeX-Hruro87iBGq2h5G5y4
PB (as he abbreviates his name in the booklet accompanying the album download) has produced this rich album with all its instruments, effects (of sea, seagulls and rushing trains) and vocals. The Essex Troubadour is in great voice, particularly on ‘Walking Down South By The Water’, ‘Big Old Sky’ and ‘Railway Flowers/August Hotel Revisited’ and I loved the horns that accompanied his vocals on the former and latter tracks.
I believe that most of the tracks for this album were written a few years ago when Phil reflected on his arrival to the seaside town (as was) and I felt the thrill of discovery from the opening track ‘Magic Tearoom’ where “the 50s come back here” whilst this scene-setter hints at the faded glories of Southend’s day-tripper heyday juxtaposed with the high volume of a “heavy road” as “1989 explodes”. It’s followed by the lovely jazz feel (no slight intended) of ‘Walking Down South By The Water’ which conveys a feeling of liberation “in the kingdom of the free” down by the seaside where “there are so many boats untied”.
Another early track, ‘Windsurfer Girl’, consolidates the sense of seaside optimism with its Beach Boys echoes (from 'Sloop John B') in the song’s introduction and it continues in this vein of “beachcombing in the sun” away from erstwhile experiences of “suicidal telephones & hangers-on” but there is a hint of darker tides to come with a slowed-down ‘outro’ echo of Sloop John B’s line of “this is the worst trip I’ve ever been on.”
The sea-change track takes place midway through the album in ‘For The Ebb Tide’ when we are introduced to Boo, who previously featured as a character in PB’s debut novel ‘Maledictus’. Boo is the narrator’s companion (and we presume lover too) who he wants to get him home after he has been sleeping by the pier following their fight the previous night. Phil adopts his Tom Waits-type growl for this track and references the couple’s preferred picks from the juke box with “five songs for 50p” at the seafront’s Hope Hotel. However, the hope that brought them to the shore looks to be on the wane though as he speaks of his knowledge of “the storms to come” and how the “mad moon in your sad brown eyes … drags the ebb tide.”
In the latter part of the album, the atmospheric ‘Lodestone Mountain Pilgrimage Alias Pier Hill & Seaway’ points to a darker future when Madame Pharaoh foretells of “a noose waiting for my neck”. ‘Big Old Sky’, a short and poetic contemplation on seasonal change and life changes, is a powerful stand-alone track that I can picture hearing on a discerning radio-style show. In the story within the album though, I noted that Boo has not featured explicitly since ‘For The Ebb Tide’ and the concluding tracks, ‘Railway Flowers/August Hotel Revisited’ (“If I only knew then - way back when …”) and ‘Crowstone’ (“I knew it was impossible love … ah, but it was almost enough”) signify reminiscences and reflection of what was and what is now. Both tracks have a strong sense of wistfulness about them and the Crowstone is the repository of the “nostalgia & sadness” of “what I left behind on my own …”
This is another of Phil’s albums which is best listened to in the cans. It’s also one that repays several replays before you get hit by its emotional force. I salute PB’s ability to reconfigure a shelved musical project to form this moving amalgamation of old and new tracks in their poetic depiction of seaside charm, personal perambulations and bittersweet remembrance.
You can find ‘Surf Arcana & The August Hotel’ via PB’s website: -> https://philburdett.com/album/25294...r5PRY3D54_zK27utwVamb0NYeX-Hruro87iBGq2h5G5y4
Last edited:
