Backscattering

Description

Splore is the name of a musical project created by Nick Saloman and Dave Palmer. Nick is, of course, the mastermind behind The Bevis Frond, and Dave Palmer is the producer and sound engineer for many of the band's albums. These two musicians have been collaborating for decades, but, for some mysterious reason, they have never released a joint album. In mid-2024, they decided to take the plunge and compose together. Dave is an excellent keyboardist, and Nick's guitar talent is well-established. So, they settled into Dave's Graffite studio and began to improvise and explore new ideas. The sounds were very encouraging, and as ideas and tracks flowed, it became clear that they had something exceptional. They decided to invite friends to add their personal touch to the project. You'll hear contributions from the great guitarist Bari Watts, the poet Kevin John Rogers, and Oak Acetator's synthesiser master, Robin Way. Paul Simmons offered us an inimitable guitar solo, while Eliza Skelton delivered a captivating flute performance. Our national diva, Debbie Wileman, performed a song that would fit perfectly into the next James Bond film, and Louis Wiggett lent his voice to a track that could easily have appeared on a Beatles album. Yet, despite the presence of these two exceptional tracks, "Backscattering" is first and foremost an instrumental album featuring a multitude of instruments: synthesizers, organs, pianos, mellotron, guitars, sitars, flute, theremin, bass, drums, tape loops, and various effects. The music oscillates between psychedelia, krautrock, reggae, film scores, and spoken word, culminating in the title track, a powerful and thundering 25-minute rock anthem. Ultimately, the amount of recorded material was too vast for a single album, and since Nick and Dave didn't want to omit anything, we opted for a more minimalist approach, in the style of Johnny Winter.