Matt Berry has released albums since 1995, though there was a thirteen-year gap between the first two albums. A 30-year recording career is no mean feat, especially in modern times where fashions and trends feed the fickle music industry beast. Then again, Berry has never courted the popular vote. He dances to his own tune.
That tune is welcomed by those who are aware of his musical prowess. Berry is more well known for his myriad of fantastic TV roles, such as Steven Toast, Leslie “Laszlo” Cravensworth, Detective Inspector Rabbit, Beef and Douglas Reynholm. Oh, and not forgetting Snuff Box, the deliciously dark sitcom.
Heard Noises is Berry’s tenth studio album, his eighth on Acid Jazz records – a place where he seems quite at home. Being quite a talented fellow, Berry plays almost all instruments, including guitars, bass, Wurlitzer pianos, and synthesizers, including Moogs, Vox, Farfisa, and Mellotron. And in songwriting, production and vocals, you have quite the package. But does this equate to an album that is worth listening to?
The opening bars of the first track, ‘Why On Fire’, gently and warmly welcome you to the album. It ramps up with a driving rhythm that pulls you along courtesy of neo-progressive drummer Craig Blundell. The prog/psyche sound this track exudes feels retro yet modern – and a little creepy towards the end, with vocals playing seemingly in reverse. Is anyone for raising the dead? The vinyl version will no doubt get rolled back and forth as people try to understand what is being uttered.
‘Silver Rings’ is a soft-rock ballad examining the need to severe a relationship to protect oneself, it features a melancholy haunting flute which wafts throughout the central part of the song. Whether this is a romantic or professional relationship is up for debate. Berry explains, “I turned 50 when I made the album, I stopped doing a show that I’d done for the most part of a decade, both of which are mentioned on the record in various ways.”
Up next we have ‘Interlude’ which is a brief musical erm… interlude that conjures up a folksy feel with a bit of ethereal chanting. This is a trap, as you jump from a relaxed feel to an eerie soundscape that greets you and makes you uncomfortable. ‘Be Alarmed’ is both menacing and bizarrely soothing, if that can be a thing. It has a slight aroma of The Doors to it. It also drips with experimental synth sounds. Think of a love child between Ray Manzarek and Jean-Michel Jarre. Berry’s vocals occasionally drift in and out, resembling dream-like whispers echoing around your soul. The backwards vocal reappears to guide you towards soiling your trousers.
Teaming up with the very gifted Kitty Liv, ‘I Gotta Limit’ is a gorgeous slice of soul with a smattering of Burt Bacharach. Berry plays the rejected partner, begging for another chance and Liv has clearly had enough of his shenanigans and puts him in his place. These two bounce off each other superbly. I hope they record with each other again. Once more, hats off to Blundell for his top-class drumming here.
‘Wedding Photo Stranger’ is a prog rock/psychedelic hybrid where you are certainly taken into the realms of the trippy. Just enjoy this track with your eyes shut in a darkened room. Let it penetrate your brain. Let it ooze into your socks and pool in the small of your back. May Berry’s vocals echo around your skull like nagging neuralgia. Consider it a four-and-a-half-minute meditation that will change your mood in some shape or form. You have nothing to lose but your marbles. As Berry highlights, “[The album] is psychedelic to a point. I have trouble shaking that off because to me there is something so magical about that style.”
A beautiful lap steel cries like a soaring eagle amongst a burbling electric piano in ‘Stay On The Ground’. With a singalong chorus, a toe-tapping/head-bobbing beat, and an 80s electro-pop feel, it creates an uplifting feel. Ready for yet another change of direction?
‘I Entered As I Came’ shows actress Natasha Lyonne (Poker Face, Russian Doll) providing an enchanting spoken world incantation to this intriguingly compelling psych-folk bewitchment. The music has a spiritual feel but avoids musical cliché. You feel pulled into this musical landscape but equally pushed away from being part of it. Like a firework, you are allowed close enough to enjoy it but kept far enough away for your own safety. “We were working together, and I just said I needed a spoken word piece for this song,” Berry reminisces. “There isn’t anyone else who sounds like Natasha – in the world. She just totally transformed this song that I already had recorded and ready to go.” Perhaps not as immediately recognisable on this track is Berry’s mum, billed here as part of the ‘S Club 60s choir’. “Anywhere you hear a sort of unsettling choir [on the album], that’s them.”, he asserts.
Something quite noticeable across Heard Noises is how you manoeuvre through various musical genres and the numerous blends Berry creates without the album ever sounding disjointed. It’s not an easy stunt to pull. A lot of thought has gone into the sequencing of this record.
Steering markedly away from psych-folk, ‘There Are Monsters’ is an absolute belter – my favourite track on this album. My advice is simple. Play this loud. Play it often. Please tune in and drop out with it. It exudes musical wonderment throughout. 60s soul, 70s funk and healthy smearing of psychedelic glory. I can picture mind-expanding shapes and colours and people pulling off all sorts of weird and wonderful dance moves as the song impregnates them and takes over their thoughts. Very Woodstock. Bloody brilliant!
“No matter what I do, I’m trapped/Like a man in a jail of his own”, croons Berry in his distinctive vocal styling in ‘To Live For What Once Was’. A man taking stock of what has gone before and how it influences you as you try moving forward, no matter how you try to shake it. Another take on his career, or a more personal tale, perhaps? Either way, Berry gets to exhibit his mastery of the keyboards here.
Reminiscent of Berry’s early work, ‘Canada Dry’ is a short, punchy track with a late-sixties US rock band smell. You are taken by the hand, and you wander with Berry as he paints you a vibrant picture of what seems to be a moment in his own showbiz history. ‘The Snakes Will Slide’ is certainly a contender to be a movie theme at some point. The song builds unhurriedly before reaching its prog-rock finale. I am unsure what inspired this song, but it could have easily been written as a metaphor for escaping social media and its toxic grip on so many of us.
‘Interlude 2’ is a groovy short musical pause which cleanses you in preparation for the album’s climax. A rollercoaster of a track, ‘Sky High’ opens with a positive vibe – all fluffy clouds and cute capybaras with glam rock styling. However, you are suddenly flung into a darker orbit as organs wail and guitars croon. I feel like I have drifted into ‘Light My Fire’ territory. I’m soon entertained with a soupçon of prog-psyche energy before the track ends with a final, emphatic flourish. This track encapsulates Berry’s musical facets under his bonnet in a whistlestop tour lasting just five minutes and twenty-one seconds.
As stated earlier, Berry follows his unique musical path. You cannot easily put him in a neat little box. And why would you want to? Artists like Berry need to be celebrated and allowed to roam free. Music is a passion he clearly enjoys revelling in, and it results in honest, smart and creative albums like Heard Noises. Here, fourteen tracks sit comfortably as bedfellows yet are diverse in their sound without ever feeling unbalanced or jarring.
Heard Noises is a joyous romp through the exceptionally imaginative and remarkable mind of Matt Berry. An album that can pick you up and make you smile, cradle you through gloomier times, and may likely invoke a scene reminiscent of The Exorcist breaking out in your living room, you won’t be able to say you haven’t been entertained!
Be the first to comment