The Doors Forum

Ian Skelly: Cut from a Star – review

Dave Simpson-The Guardian- Thursday 3 January 2013 16.30 EST




Even the album cover art has some collage styled similarities to LoVE & "Forever Changes"!


Cut From A Star
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=pl ... YFxTT1hnPo

After more than a decade drumming for Liverpool psychedelists the Coral, in 2009 Ian Skelly was struck down by a fever that led to him experiencing dreams and hallucinations. It inspired this solo debut, in which he filters guitars, flutes, mellotrons and sharp pop/folk songwriting through a psychedelic haze. Recorded on a vintage tape machine in the Coral's rehearsal space, much of Cut from a Star sounds as if it could have been blasted straight from the late 60s.

The title track features the sort of lysergic-soaked melody beloved of the Move or Arthur Lee's Love.

Nickel and Dime suggests Skelly bought a rail ticket at Liverpool Lime Street station and got off at Woodstock, while Caterpillar, ostensibly a song about a small crawling insect, enjoys a butterfly-like metamorphosis into a gentle but kaleidoscopic beauty. Skelly's lyrics about dreams within dreams and paper skies might sound as if they were inspired by wacky baccy rather than illness, but these tunes have a wistful, fantastical power.

Paper Sky
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C-bly9dvP44


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Review for Clarkophile.blogspot.com


Part 2 of my look at Gene's 'Dark of My Moon' has been delayed by two things: 1) the holidays; and 2) my current obsession, the magnificent debut solo album from the Coral's Ian Skelly, Cut from a Star.
So taken was I with this record that I felt compelled to drop everything, put other pressing matters on the back burner, and contact Shindig Magazine to pitch an idea for a story on it. They were receptive, and consequently I interviewed Ian yesterday and wrote the piece today.

I would strongly urge anyone with a love for dark, pastoral psych to seek out this record. In a word, it's magical. A stunning debut.

By the way, Ian is a big Gene Clark fan, so you just know he's a wonderful chap. I was honoured to hear him say that he enjoys reading The Clarkophile.

http://clarkophile.blogspot.com/

"Well, much like Erland and the Carnival and Skelly’s own original priority, The Coral, Cut from a Star‘s vibe centres on the late ‘60s as a minefield of inspiration. That the birth of the ‘70s was spied dragging with it all the blissful innovations and ecstatic harmonies of the second half of that decade that changed music is apparent because this evokes a time when the hair was longer but the musicians were not yet fully-fledged indulgent f**kers intent on ruining notions of taste forever. Much of this album evokes a peculiar yet uber- melodic paisley-tinged country-rock sound.