7"
Still in NZ and on the Stefan Neville tip (who is on recording and mixing duties here) for this union of Claire Mahoney's Thistle Group and Benedict Quilter's P Wits as part of IDDB's dependable 7" single series. The 7" has proved a slightly unusual format for a number of acts that IDDB have worked with, at times a little too short form for such ordinarily wide focus or sprawling applications (or perhaps that's the point that i've missed entirely?). For the purposes of what Mahoney and Quilter are up to, it makes perfect sense. A side 'Fog On My Brain' is, relatively speaking or otherwise, A HIT, the kind of thrashed out and burning alt. rock emoting few get this right anymore. Drums clatter, guitars ring, sometimes entirely at odds or unaware of the other, like Cynthia Dall stumbling around in The Gordons' garage, and that's absolutely how it should be, professionalism be damned. The pair aren't so much collaborating as trading off each other's light. Then it's two-and-a-half minutes are up and it's time to reload. Understandable if you don't make it to the B, but if you should, the delights not only persist in the form of a This Kind of Punishment style dirge but insist on further work from the pair. Inspired amateurism in its purest guise.
