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7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
One not to miss, 15 Dec 2002
Jimi Hendrix is well and truly alive! Well, not quite, but The Squire Of Somerton, namely Toby Jenkins, demonstrates that proper rock’n’roll music is well and truly alive. As he declares on exergue of the press release: “The god of my everything is rock”. Far from the formulaic and mindless punk-core championed by most of today’s teenage angst-ridden bands, Jenkins weaves an ingenious and delicate soundtrack.
Transverberations is a far cry from the voluptuous folk/electronic soundscapes of Fort Lauderdale, the duo Jenkins formed with Steve Webster in the late nineties. Born in Bristol, where he spent if formative years, he got his first guitar when he was just 12, before turning to piano some years later, eventually combining his classical roots with more modern sounds in Fort Lauderdale, intentionally bringing together the distinction of Satie, the experimentalism of Roxy Music and the dilettantism of contemporary electronica in a fireworks of sounds and emotions.Shaping epic circumvolutions of sulphurous beauty, Jenkins presents with Transverberations a breathtaking celebration of the guitar. As he takes his songs through electrically charged territories, he deploys an arsenal of sonic tricks to support his lyrics, ranging from the bucolic and innocent The Loved Ones or The Creeping Funk to the ironic and sarcastic The Feminist Agenda or Hollywood Stud and the obsessive Would You Like Another Drink. At times indulging in delicacy, hanging acoustic lights in his summer sky (Out In The Morning Sun, Cuba), at others dropping incendiary bombs or funking up his enchanting soundscapes (Would You Like Another Drink?, Raw Custard, Lipstick In Your Car) Jenkins avoids all the pitfalls of the genre and continuously captivates the mind by changing direction in the most insolent fashion, following the same psychedelic patterns developed by the likes of the Beatles or, later on, Hendrix, no less. But there is not impertinent pretentious statement or disrespectful appropriations here. Toby Jenkins simply enjoys every creative impulse and draws his own road in the sand. Transverberations is a truly unique record in today’s musical landscape, and a truly surprising, if not entirely unexpected, piece of work. In reflection, the last Fort Lauderdale album was fuelled by the same anachronic ingenuity, but, left to his own devices, Toby Jenkins lets his lingering mind loose and offers one of the most interesting, invigorating and astonishing records released this year.
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