Camberwell Now – 22All27s Well 22 – 5BRec Rec Music5D

After This Heat flamed out, drummer/vocalist Charles Hayward recorded with Trefor Goronwy (bass, vox and more) and Stephen Rickard (mucking about with tapes) as Camberwell Now. This CD compiles all of the odd art-damaged and deliberate work from that project during its lifespan (1982-86). Much of the work has a morose charm (although the snake-tape handling on “Spirit of Dunkirk” moves more spritely.) Haywards taut
drumming is surpassed only by his interesting lyrical tangents.We wind up with tales of setting sail, of working class weariness. His poetic voice has a nice prophetic thickness to it, and while the songs aren’t easily loaded into memory, once in there they are not easily extracted. Singing styles
are also elasticated into characters, something not enough bands are brave enough to do. I loved this album well before I hit track 10 (another more upbeat number) and found myself singing along to the mantra of my favorite DC hero,

“In brightest day, in blackest night…”
” No evil shall escape my sight…”

Holy Hal Jordan!! Fortunately this didn’t escape the ear of the sonic crusaders at Recommended Records!!

Haiku Review:

This Heat afterburn
Bright sun shines in lyric mind
Dark drums beat below