Heavy Petting
Heavy Petting, Dr. Strangely Strange’s second album, is one I’ve had for several years. Alas, not the original vinyl, but a dub onto CD-R that a friend gave me.
I haven’t listened to it for quite some time, though I remembered enjoying both it and their debut Kip of the Serenes. So it’s another voyage of rediscovery!
The album is an idiosyncratic curio from a period bursting with idiosyncratic curios. I’ve seen it described as ‘experimental Irish Folk’ which is, frankly, a description guaranteed to strike terror into the heart. But it’s hard to describe it as much else. Folk-Rock doesn’t cut it, although it features a teenage Gary Moore who gets to cut loose, and Dave Mattacks. You can’t call it Country and Irish, or Irish and Western, but there are hints of it. Johnny Moynihan and Andy Irvine are on it too, holding up the folk end (I think both were still with Sweeney’s Men at the time).
The truth is that it’s a melange of influences. The opener The Ballad of the Wasps shares DNA with Dire Wolf on Workingman’s Dead, for example. I found myself thinking of Ronnie Lane and the Faces from time to time too.
The album is loose, verging on the ramshackle, but it has that something about it that catches the ear. The temptation is to write that, with a bit more focus, this would have been great. But had they focused it might well have smoothed off the very quirkiness that makes it a fun listen. It’s certainly more engaging than The Incredible String Band, to whom they’re sometimes compared, and Ashling will be on my 1970 playlist when I get it together.
I listened on CD-R, but it’s on Spotify and there’s a YouTube playlist.
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