Spring 2 :: THE PALACE OF LIGHT "Catherine / Books" ::

Release date/Fecha de edición: 18-4-2011
Includes insert with liner notes and pictures//Incluye díptico con notas y fotos.  Ltd. edition 250 copies.

Castellano --- El gran Phil Smee, capo del legendario e influyente sello Bam Caruso, los definía así: “The Palace Of Light eran uno de nuestros secretos mejor guardados. Un grupo de tipos afines que se postraban ante el altar de Cyrus Faryar, Fred Neil, Scott Walker y Mickey Newbury, y que tenían un cantante con una voz impresionante. Su disco de debut contenía temas de proporciones épicas y debería estar disponible de nuevo.” Bien cierto. Alejados de los excesos de producción de los ochenta (que lastraron tantos buenos discos), pero recogiendo a la vez lo bueno de esa época, “Beginning Here and Travelling Outward” (1987) es un disco de pop-rock de difícil catalogación. Canciones enormes, de emoción a flor de piel, bordeando la épica y que pueden traer a la cabeza lo mejor del pop-rock australiano de entonces, The Church, los Triffids o incluso los Go-Betweens, y también grupos americanos como American Music Club. El peso del grupo lo llevaban las personales canciones de Mark Brend (guitarra) y Geoff Smith (voz y guitarras), y se completaba con el multiinstrumentista Matthew Gale. Además de las influencias americanistas citadas encontramos en su sonido pocos rastros que los delaten como el grupo inglés que eran.

Pasaron unos años, y The Palace of Light reaparecieron en 1991 con un single autoeditado que contenía dos perlas del calibre de “Catherine” y “Books”, tal vez lo mejor que llegarían a grabar. Curiosamente el single nunca se llegó a distribuir y sólo unas pocas copias llegaron hasta alguna emisora de radio. Aunque las canciones habían sido grabadas por The Palace of Light antes de su disolución, el single se editó bajo el nombre de Mabel Joy que el grupo adoptaría para grabar el disco “Wish I Was” publicado en 1993 por Bam Caruso. Spring Records tiene el orgullo de rescatar ahora esta joya del olvido y darle una nueva oportunidad, sólo por el placer de re-descubrir estas maravillosas canciones.

English --- Phil Smee head honcho and founder of legendary and influential label Bam Caruso wrote: “The Palace of Light were one of our best kept secrets. A group of like-minded guys who worshiped at the feet of Cyrus Faryar, Fred Neil, Scott Walker and Mickey Newbury and boasted a singer with an amazing voice. Their debut album contains musical tales of epic proportions and should really be made available once more.” Far from the excess that marked the 80’s, “Beginning Here and Travelling Outward” (1987) was, again in Mr. Smee’s words “light years ahead, in terms of content and production of virtually any other band´s first offering... textures of sound , woven like a complex web, overlay the songs, (all originlas) and turn each and every one into a mini-symphony...It’s 1988 and the art of music making is alive and well in the hearts of at least four young people called The Palace of Light”. Mark Brend guitarist of the band recalls: “We got some good reviews and played a few gigs in London, then gave up for nearly a year. In the summer of 1988 we decided to have another go, and reconvened to record three songs at Cold Storage in Brixton, South London, … One of the tracks we recorded was Books, which you can hear on this single. …. there’s a string trio led by Marcus Holdaway, who later joined the High Llamas. We’d circulated the three newly recorded songs to some record companies, and I remember some A&R men coming to see us, though we didn’t get any offers. Then in 1989 we recorded two sessions in a studio in Stoke Newington, North London. One of the songs we recorded there was Catherine, the other track on this single” When the drummer left, the group started playing live as a trio and decided to change their name and press a promo single, drawing on the material recorded since the Palace Of Light album. They settled on Mabel Joy as the band name (after the Mickey Newbury song, “Frisco Mabel Joy”), chose Catherine and Books for the single, and decided to call their label Hummingbird. It was 1991. Some 7 inches were pressed up. But the single was never properly released. Some copies were sent out for review, and to radio stations, but there was no distribution and it was never sold in shops. So, the record you now have in your hands is something of an anomaly, as it is a reissue of something that wasn’t really issued in the first place. The single got a couple of reviews, and maybe even some radio play, but it didn’t really achieve anything. Mabel Joy pressed on, and in 1994 returned to Bam Caruso for an album, Wish I Was, before splitting up.

The Palace of Light were a band completely out of step with the times. They had obscurity in their genes, so perhaps it is fitting that this – the first Palace of Light reissue – should be of their most obscure record, one that was never really released in the first place. But a true lost gem of a record, indeed!!