KEYS by Not A Teepee

If I could play anything other than just bass guitar, I'd be strongly tempted to submit a track for the Not A Teepee collective.  Using a one-word concept to determine the direction of each compilation leaves artists with a lot of room for interpretation, whilst ensuring a measure of uniformity among the tracks on every release.  It's a brilliant idea, and one which has served the collective well since its inception almost a year ago.  The title of this latest collection - Keys - seems to have inspired almost all the participants in exactly the same way, as each track is centred on a theme or chord progression hammered out on the proverbial ivories.  There are a few other instruments thrown into the mix as always, but for this release the humble keyboard (with its myriad permutations) takes centre stage.

Les Pelicans get things off to a frenetic start with the punked-up, lo-fi bossa nova of Paint, which is followed by grandiose waves of Klaus Schulze-esque synthesiser on Detail's Bring Your Cat To Work Day.  Sarah J Stanley complements her keys with some nicely delayed guitar and a haunting vocal line on All My Heroes Are Homegrown, while a maelstrom of synthesised sound envelops the celestial rock-out of It Is A New Day's astronomical hymn, Hey Big Dipper!.  A beautifully wistful piano takes centre stage on Key Note Speaking, a rare instrumental from Tim Courtney, and John Hekert's Green Pony persona marries his ominous organ tones to menacing vocal fragments on the fantastically-named Pussybreaker.  Fiona Keenan's take on the Keys concept results in a decidedly retro piece of electro-pop, which works as a pleasingly jarring counterpoint to her typically down-to-earth lyrics.  The album is thus brought to a close by a synth bossa nova beat not dissimilar to the one which started it.  Maybe the style's making a comeback....

Obviously, "keyboard" is no more an instrument than "strings" or "buttons" are.  It's an interface which can control instruments capable of producing a whole range of sounds, meaning that although the theme of this album is Keys, the seven tracks here gathered showcase a huge amount of variety over the duration of the recording.  There is one sound, however, that seems to come up again and again; that of the organ.  The instrument's ecclesiastical heritage may lend it some inherent gravitas, or perhaps people just think it always sounds cool, but for some reason its warm tones never seem to go out of style.  One thing's for sure, though, and that is that Keys is yet another quality collection of material from a project which never seems to run out of steam.

Available for streaming and free download here.