Brudenell Presents...
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Cai Burns’ emergence in lockdown as Blood Wizard was startling in the project’s seemingly instant realisation. Western Spaghetti – his full-length debut – was the sort of record that could have been mistaken for a cult outsider’s work years deep into honing their craft. Its deftly balanced mix of quietly forceful hooks, plaintive textures and wry lyricism created a welcoming space to escape amidst the tension of the times. However, on the much-anticipated follow-up Grinning William it’s clear that Burns has only previously scratched the surface of what Blood Wizard can be.
Grinning William is a record that advances Burns’ reputation as one of the UK underground’s most underrated ears when it comes to arresting hooks and pop smarts. Here, he pulls them through a prism that refracts differently from his previous releases – the more alt. folk leanings of his debut have been largely ushered out in lieu of slung low, beefier guitars that at times tighten up into taut new wave urgency and at others allow themselves to fully embrace the drop tuned sludge. Alex G remains an influence, and Burns also notes taking cues from the playfulness of Cate le Bon and Aldous Harding, as well as the raw, direct vocal production of Dean Blunt. However, he’s more than capable of plotting his own path, adept at packing in a bustling array of ideas into efficient three-minute pop songs.
Opener sciencefiction is almost a goodbye to his previous album in its pared down guitar and embracing vocal drawl – harking back to the softer-edge Kurt Vile-reminiscent stylings of some of Western Spaghetti. The album’s title track then swerves direction, painting a more broadly brushed chorus atop a feedback drenched foundation, Burns swapping in and out of vocals with keyboardist Faye Robinson.
Grinning William arrives three years after Burn’s critically acclaimed debut and on the surface it perhaps feels like Blood Wizard has emerged, retreated and returned in abrupt fashion. However, the truth is that the wheels have never stopped turning for the artist.
As on Western Spaghetti, Burns tackles his new LP with a full band, but affords Robinson, Tom Towle on second guitar, Ben Davis on bass and Adrian Cook on drums more collaborative input than ever before. Recorded with producer Theo Verney, the band went into Echo Zoo Studios with tracks rehearsed but not so tightly that there wasn’t ample room for further additions and edits - and the open-ended nature of the project led to frequent unexpected creative turns. Songs became much heavier than their demo form as guitars were layered up and – with just three initial studio days booked – tracks were run through once, altered sometimes drastically and then recorded in one take.
The result is a far more urgent Blood Wizard record than previous material, the quick one-two of Apples + Oranges’ fizzing American college rock and Devil Dressed in Disguise’s angular guitar pickings is a jolt to the senses, while Sinister Star is a strutting, squall of a rock track. Lyrically Burns retains a dry sense of humour and wry observational tone even when singing about matters close to the heart. Tracks like BIG FISH are musings on the dance of
connections and relationships and their emotional impact – Burns realising at one point “I thought I was big fish, turns out I was bait”. The likes of back2bed meanwhile are more retrospective in their gaze, Burns looking back to childhood and exploring the ways in which he’s tried to escape previous versions of himself. Underneath it all is an understanding of the fragility of life and its potential to collapse at any moment. The album moves through these conflicting emotions, with Burns wrestling with personal struggles, relationships, disillusionment until reaching some form of acceptance on album closer Higher Energy! which ends Grinning William in emphatic style, guitars piled on top of each other, driven through by a direct, glottal bass line.
Grinning William is a confident step forward in Burns progression as a songwriter, an addition to a Blood Wizard oeuvre that already for those in know has cemented him as an artist unafraid to look outwards for influence yet singular in his vision. Time will tell whether it’ll push him over the precipice of the underground but, for those who discover it, Grinning William is a record to return to time and time again.