Friends In Noise - Black Market Karma (Flower Power Records)

As the title might suggest, Friends In Noise is a collection of collaborations between the main Black Marketeer, Stanley Belton, and many friends and colleagues who he has worked and made music with over the years. Although not intended to be an album in its own right, Belton began to realize that he was collecting songs and ideas, collaborations and co-writes with a wealth of fascinating people and that to have all of those musical adventures and sonic experimentation in one place would be a fantastic idea. And thus, Friends In Noise was born.

Two excellent singles have already laid the way for this release, the slightly off-kilter and wonderfully wonky “The Sky Was All Diseased*, featuring Tess Parks and opener “Aping Flair”, which sees Belton join forces with Rauri Meehan to explore perhaps what Brit-pop might have sounded like had it come together in 1966 instead of nearly thirty years later.

Between these lead tracks, you find all manner of sonic gems. Wonky has the same blend of re-imagined sixties pop and unexplored nineties indie and sees Belton working with The Underground Youth. His collaboration with The Confederate Dead, “Aging Boy”, shimmers and shines, charms and chimes in equal measure.

What I love about this album is that, although Belton finds himself co-writing and collaborating with artists from across the musical spectrum, there is absolute consistency to the results, the album seemingly having one foot in a version of the sixties that didn’t quite exist and the other striding forward into a new horizon yet to be fully realized. More than that, it all sounds, to a greater degree, like a Black Market Karma record, which must speak volumes about Stanley Belton’s exercise and control.

Ace! As they might have said in his alternative past or perhaps will say in his possible future!

Spotify
Aping Flair
The Sky Was All Diseased
Spotify
Order tour tickets