Album: King Creosote

Rocket DIY, FENCE

Andy Gill
Thursday 31 March 2005 18:00 EST
Comments

Your support helps us to tell the story

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.

The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.

Your support makes all the difference.

As prime mover of the Fence Records Collective, whose number includes James Yorkston and Lone Pigeon, the label head Kenny Anderson, aka King Creosote, is on a low-key mission to alert us to the quirky new forms of folktronica coming from the East Neuk of Fife. With piano, organ, banjo and acoustic guitar settings embellished variously with melodica, pedal steel guitar and synthesiser squiggles, the arrangements have a geniality that recalls his fellow Scots folk-popster Colin MacIntyre. Anderson's songs, however, link the humdrum with quixotic flights of fancy. King Creosote songs invite ridicule - literally, in the case of "King Bubbles in Sand" - with their fascination for charging the quotidian with significance, as when Anderson adopts a laundry metaphor in "Twin Tub Twin" ("Things sometimes work out/ It all comes out in the wash/ But if it don't, there's no harm done"). In "Circle My Demise", he observes crows observing him; in "Spooned out on Tick" he regrets being too generous with his time; a

As prime mover of the Fence Records Collective, whose number includes James Yorkston and Lone Pigeon, the label head Kenny Anderson, aka King Creosote, is on a low-key mission to alert us to the quirky new forms of folktronica coming from the East Neuk of Fife. With piano, organ, banjo and acoustic guitar settings embellished variously with melodica, pedal steel guitar and synthesiser squiggles, the arrangements have a geniality that recalls his fellow Scots folk-popster Colin MacIntyre. Anderson's songs, however, link the humdrum with quixotic flights of fancy. King Creosote songs invite ridicule - literally, in the case of "King Bubbles in Sand" - with their fascination for charging the quotidian with significance, as when Anderson adopts a laundry metaphor in "Twin Tub Twin" ("Things sometimes work out/ It all comes out in the wash/ But if it don't, there's no harm done"). In "Circle My Demise", he observes crows observing him; in "Spooned out on Tick" he regrets being too generous with his time; and, best of all, in "Saffy Nool" he commiserates with a friend's dread of ageing: "You're growing old, you're growing tense/ I was past 35 before my face made much sense/ It means nothing." A small but welcome compendium of wit and wisdom.

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in