Sometimes less is more. And Derby bedroom composer Lonesome Jonesome takes this to heart not only stripping down the instrumentation to an acoustic guitar, a tambourine, and a FM3 Buddha machine, yet also collapsing the tunes down to 1-2 minute suites. Really just an idea per piece. It feels immediate, like he got everything down as quickly as possible and then moved on. Whilst clearly thought has gone into arrangements he hasn’ agonised over the mixing or spent years on the EQ. Driven by a repetitive acoustic guitar riffs, everything else remains subservient, the drone of the Buddha and the percussive use of tambourine which seems to have been added after the guitar. These are simple tunes with plenty of space for extra instrumentation – which Lonesome Jonesome chooses not to add. In fact it’s DIY feel and refusal to clutter up the space is what makes The Peeper and Chin Chin so charming. There’ a knock on the door, you can hear cars passing, children playing, it seems like everything that happened stays on this introspective lofi ten track disc. Lonesome Jonesome is about the truth and the emotion of the moment, perhaps to redo it, to remove the imperfections he is frightened that he will lose this truth and never rediscover it again. It’s music in which the listener not only taps into the melancholic introspective emotion but does their own work, adding their own internal symphony to Lonesome Jonesome’ sparse and fragile pieces.
Bob Baker Fish
