'Modern Mediaeval is the third LP from Birmingham based Singer / Songwriter / Auteur David Garside, and the first to receive the full Frizz Records vinyl treatment. It's also clearly the most fully-realised statement of his distinctive vision so far... It's an easy route to locate David in the tradition of his 'classic' rock, pop & soul influences (McCartney, Nick Drake, Stevie Wonder, Joni Mitchell, The Beach Boys, Love, Talking Heads, Peter Gabriel, Dexy's...), but whilst there's no denying that these are obvious reference points, to reduce his work in these terms is short-sighted... There are few songwriters working today that have absorbed these influences so fully, and arrived at a mature style as David has which draws on them as a back-drop not for pastiche but instead for creative exploration into uncharted territory... It can be difficult in 2009 to make yourself heard above the noise, and it's never been David's style to fight his way to the front with brash sonics or fashion statements. There are no 808s or Hi-Life guitars here. His palette is 'traditional' - acoustic picking, piano, bass, vibes, jazz-inflected drums, elegant chamber strings & crisp soul style horns. All tastefully and beautifully arranged. His innovation instead is to create a world through his melodies and chord patterns, his gently unfolding songs structures, and his consistently engaging lyrical turn of phrase, which is all his own. Without there ever being anything ostentatious about his music, nevertheless every song is very much his; there is a subtle mood which infuses everything which could only be David Garside... Part of this equation of course is his singing voice. It says a lot that we can only evoke it's qualities with such diverse comparisons as Steve Winwood, Nick Drake, Peter Gabriel, Brian Wilson & Arthur Lee, but there are pieces of each in his soulful yearning and very English tenor, which provides a consistency to the record's stylistic roaming across everything from 'Pet Sounds' orchestrations to sparser chamber pieces and Zombies style psychedelic road-trips... So this is 'singer-songwriter' music in the sense that it's focus is on song-craft and the unfolding of the lyrical vision of a single individual, and it's overall tone is one of reflection, designed for the most part for careful home-listening; but if so then it's definitely at the sophisticated end of the scale ('progressive' if that term isn't too loaded...), filed alongside 'Bryter Layter', 'The Hissing Of Summer Lawns', 'Pretzel Logic' or 'Surf's Up'... Which is all the more remarkable an achievement when you consider that not only are there no computers involved (there's no bedroom studio pro-tools simulation here - everything you hear is recorded to tape using 'real' instruments), but also that all aspects of the writing and recording process are pretty much David's own work. Not only is he providing all the voices and an array of multi-instrumental contributions, and writing all the songs, he is also his own producer and arranger; and when you listen to the engulfing beauty of the strings on 'Mr Wise', or the psychedelic style-hopping master-class of 'Glimpses', the breadth of his skill becomes evident. Then you learn that the whole thing was done on zero budget, and it's difficult not be astonished at the maturity of his achievement...