Anton Barbeau, Natural Causes, 2018

Album Review

By Henry Lipput

If you wanted to buy Anton Barbeau's first album, The Horse's Tongue, in 1993, chances are that you would only be able to get it on a compact disc. By that time, vinyl had pretty much disappeared -- at least in the United States -- from what were still being called record stores.

Barbeau's new album, Natural Causes, is his follow-up to 2016's quirky and tuneful Magic Act. And 23 years after The Horse's Tongue, Magic Act became his first album to be released on vinyl. Barbeau has said that, in making Natural Causes, he was treating it like a second album. As a result, he took the opportunity to revisit some of his older songs.

The first song on the new album, "Magazine Street," was also the first song on his first CD. It's a rocker and already contained some of Barbeau's trademark visual imagery: "See-through curtains and open doors," "the wind was howling like a wounded dog," and "I came upon a little German girl on Magazine Street of perfect lips and iron will."

Andy Metcalfe, who has played with Robyn Hitchcock and was in the band Three Minute Tease with Barbeau (and also played on Magic Act), provides some amazing bass work on "Magazine Street." Speaking of Three Minute Tease, that band's "It's The Coffee That Makes The Man Go Mad" is also revisited on Natural Causes.

Another of the remakes on Natural Causes and one of the album highlights is the gorgeous "Summer Of Gold." Nick Saloman and Ade Shaw of the Bevis Frond play on the song, and it's a great mix of shimmering guitars, mellotron, and a terrific guitar solo. The song was first recorded for Allyson Seconds's wonderful Little World album from 2016 which Barbeau played on, wrote, and produced (You really need to check that one out if you haven't already). 

The wonders of nature and life on our little world are also very much a part of the magical "Just Passing By:" "She opened her hands up / To show us a tea cup / To show that we'd not forgotten how / How to see / See through walls / See the ocean after all / See the air in the sky / See the life just passing by."

On Barbeau's two albums from 2016, he worked with one of my favorite musicians, Colin Moulding, bass player and songwriter from XTC. After that band broke up in 2000, I didn't hear much about him until Magic Act and Little World. Moulding is now very busy having released the TC&I EP last year with former XTC drummer Terry Chambers, and they're  doing some live shows as well.

I bring this up because Barbeau has done it again. On Natural Causes, the great guitarist Robbie McIntosh plays 12-string on "Disambiguation" and "Down Around the Radio." For me, McIntosh's best work was on Pretenders' Learning To Crawl, Paul McCartney's Unplugged, and his own solo acoustic albums. It's great to hear Robbie again on this new album.

Natural Causes is out now on Beehive Records.

Allyson Seconds, Little World, 2016

Album Review

By Henry Lipput

Allyson Seconds's new album, Little World, like her 2009 debut Bag Of Kittens, was written and produced by Anton Barbeau. Earlier this year I reviewed (favorably) Barbeau's Magic Act. And, although Barbeau is based in Berlin, he’s a Sacramento native and has used his West Coast upbringing to create some sunny California indie-pop for Little World.

I didn't hear Bag Of Kittens when it came out, but I very much hear Little World as a sister album to Mary Lou Lord's terrific 1997 Got No Shadow. Many of the songs on that disc were written by Lord and Nick Saloman of The Bevis Frond, so it's not surprising that The Bevis Frond play on Little World.

In addition to The Bevis Frond and Kimberly Rew (of The Soft Boys and some fine solo work), Barbeau and Seconds have also brought along Colin Moulding to play bass (and, based on the "Little World" video, also contribute some backing vocals) on Little World. It was good to see Moulding's name on the credits for Magic Act, because I hadn't heard much about him since the final XTC album, the great Wasp Star, was released in 2000.

From the first song, Little World is full of wonder, joy, and delight, due, in large measure, to Seconds's voice. Barbeau's work can be quirky, surrealistic, and occasionally dark, but Seconds transforms the words and melodies into an album that's warm and upbeat.

And, although she recreates Anton Barbeau's phrasing in some songs, Seconds makes most of them her own for a great part of the album. For me, her voice is similar not only to Mary Lou Lord, but on many tracks, she also reminds me of whitechocolatespaceegg-era Liz Phair as well as the darker side of Sam Phillips (who is not all Gilmore Girl lalalas). It's a sign of how good a voice Seconds has that she can sound like either a child or a woman in these songs.

The title song has a driving beat, a great bass line, and is full of child-like wonder. The song has Barbeau's trademark quirky wordplay but Seconds's voice turns it into a fairy tale: "I'm going to ride to the ocean on a turtle egg" and "I'm going to stare up at the stars in a field of wheat."

The lovely "Dust Beneath My Wings" is a mashup of Liz Phair and Lewis Carroll. "Love is everywhere," she sings, "It sings to the alligator's hair / it sings to the cumulus laid out miles before him."

Seconds is flirting on "Eye Kinda:" "If I could be with you now in a postcard locale / I'd send myself in a mail right to you." Flirting turns to sex on the Sam Phillips-like "Ono Waltz:" "When the neighbors complain / Turn the stereo high as it can go."

The final song is the autumnal "Apples Are Falling." There's a strummed acoustic guitar accompanying Seconds's vocal and, as the song builds, a spacey backing vocal and a melancholy horn solo join the mix. As the song ends, the apples are still falling, the worms have arrived, and the leaves are turning brown.

With the reprise of the title song we are back to the beginning and Allyson Seconds's world, with the help of Anton Barbeau, is again a thing of wonder.

Little World is out now on Beehive Sound.

Anton Barbeau, Magic Act, 2016

Album Review

by Henry Lipput

It started with John Lennon and Syd Barrett and their surreal, psychedelic songs like "I Am The Walrus" and "See Emily Play," songs that influenced the sound of music in the late 1960s. These songs also influenced the work of later songwriters like Andy Partridge, Robyn Hitchcock, Anton Barbeau, Martin Newell, and, more recently, Robert Harrison, the mastermind behind Cotton Mather and Future Clouds And Radar.

You may not have heard of Anton Barbeau, but he's been part of this club since his debut release in 1993. And he’s just put out a groovy new album called Magic Act.

Barbeau has been part of the Three Minute Tease band along with former Soft Boys / Egyptians / Hitchcock-sidemen Andy Metcalfe and Morris Windsor. In fact, the new album was supposed to be released under that band's moniker but, because of the dreaded "artistic differences" gremlin, it became another Barbeau solo turn. (However, "Milk Churn In The Morning" on the new album does, in fact, feature Andy and Morris.)

Magic Act starts strong with "High Noon," a song that asks the musical question: "Did the CIA really kill the Virgin Mary by sending her on a suicide mission to the moon?" You can decide for yourself based on the information presented in the song. And Dracula is in there as well. There’s also crunching guitar and some nice sonic effects. ("Nice sonic effects" can be said of all of the songs on the album which shows that a lot of work has gone into how good the album sounds -- especially when listened to on headphones. Sorry kids. Earbuds are not headphones. Ask your CoolDad or CoolMom about this.)

Colin Moulding, who plays on Magic Act, is co-founder along with Andy Partridge of the late, great band XTC. Moulding is a terrific songwriter and great bass player. Unfortunately, he doesn’t play on "Swindon," (he plays on the album’s opening track) a song that seems to be a love letter (with vampires) to the town that XTC is from. In addition, some of the songs on the new Barbeau album remind me of The Dukes Of Stratophere, a name XTC recorded under (in secret) in the 80s, performing a pastiche (written by Moulding and Partridge) of late 60s and early 70s songs. Barbeau's "Heavy Psychedelic Toilet" and "Black Lemon Sauce" are prime examples of this.

"Milk Churn In The Morning" could have been a Lou Reed outtake from the Transformer album and it‘s a really good example of Barbeau's pop songwriting chops. And your guess as to what the milk churn stands for is as good as mine, but it's a terrific sounding song. "City By The Sea" is a lovely, slow-burner of a song with sinking cities and witches being burned on the lawn. "Hop Skip A Jump" is an acoustic-guitar turn that features a terrific, clean bass line.

Barbeau's debt to John Lennon is especially evident in "Euphemism & Innuendo" and "The Wait Of You." The first song is a spacey number that seems to encourage listeners to turn off their minds and float downstream -- but not in those words. The sound, especially the guitars, on "The Wait Of You" make it a cross between "I Want You (She’s So Heavy)" and "Yer Blues."

From a mixed bag of tricks, on his new album Anton Barbeau has performed a special magic act. And you can listen in as he pulls more than a rabbit (perhaps a flying spider as one of the songs suggests) out of his hat.

Magic Act is out now on Mystery Lawn Music.