"MOON PALACE" 2011 SLEEVE NOTES BY "MARTIN NEWELL"

Moon Palace is an album, rather then a disparate collection of songs. So, having listened to it for a while on a still grey morning in autumn. I began to write this notes for it. It’s an odd thing to do: to listen to the work of two musicians with whom I was on the road with for years, and knew so well during the heady days and sometimes rather rough times.

But what’s Moon Palace like? Well, it’s a bit like after many years, visiting the big house which you’d grown up in. There’s the hall with its same echoes, the front room with its late afternoon light, the landing which you’s always feared was haunted, the old kitchen with its big table and lastly, the rambling garden outside.

But it’s changed too. It’s been modernised, rewired, it’s lighter now and the doors don’t stick. Someone’s looked after this place, lovingly done it up.

After the initial strangeness of walking around it, I began to like it and wandered around it again, noticing the little details: the craftsmanship which had gone into its refurbishment. Much of which had been done simply couldn’t have happened in the early days. Back then, we wouldn’t have had the experience, the skills, the methods or even the building materials to work with. Only time can grant you those kinds of things.

One day I suppose, Ian and Brian, having returned after many years from their long travels, looked over the old house, with its dilapidated shutters, leaking roof and overgrown garden, and set to work. It took them about two years of badgering, salvaging and tweaking - weekends, odd days and spare evenings. If I enquired about it, they’d occasionally tell me that, yes, it was coming along. I began to wonder if the project would ever be finished.

Then, one day, this appeared: Moon Palace by Trash Humanica. I listened to the music first, with a sort of wonder. It’s well produced. I first heard it in autumn and it remains an autumnal and rather English-sounding record for me. I listened to the lyrics, which in many cases seem to be a reference to the past - one which I knew only too well. That was another thing about the house-album comparison - I had to move back there for a while. Then I really got to like it. As I said at the beginning of all this Moon Palace is a proper album.

"MARTIN NEWELL"