Rushes CD - The Fireman

por **Admin** Lun Mayo 30, 2011 12:04 pm

Rushes

Watercolour Guitars
Track Nº1/8

"Rushes" is the second album which Paul McCartney released under the pseudonym of The Fireman. Like the first Fireman album, "Strawberries Oceans Ships Forest", it is a collaboration between McCartney and the producer known as Youth. Unlike that album, the style and flow is more varied and has more of an ambient etherial quality to it.

The opening track "Watercolour Guitars" has a very Pink Floyd/"Shine On" feel to it especially in the guitars and spacey electronics. The guitar riff continues on into the next track "Palo Verde" in which a bass pulse emerges along with spoken words from Linda McCartney (her last appearance on one of Paul's albums) as well a subdued rhythm, ambient chords and treated vocals from Paul.

"Auraveda" is a very psychedelic piece which sounds like an outtake from "Magical Mystery Tour" at first. Sounds of handdrums, sitar, harmonium, mellotron and string bass create an acid-soaked collage during the opening half of the piece. Then it suddenly shifts into floating waves of hypnotic synth chords with light percussion.

The second half of this piece is similar to ambient artists such as Steve Roach.

"Fluid" is a moody simplitic piece which reminded me somewhat of Mike Oldfield's "Tubular Bells" especially with its haunting piano lines and repeated guitar phrasings. "Appletree Cinnabar Amber" carries on "Fluid's" guitar line to the next level.
Here, Paul adds his steady drumbeat and beefs up the instrumentation. At times, there are hints of "Momma Miss America" from Paul's first solo album.

"Bision" is a short, off-the-cuff piece which again features Paul on drums as well as a distorted bass line and discordant random melodies. This leads into "7AM" which is a continuation of "Auraveda" with a more prominent bass-synth sequence and bits of strings played on the mellotron. The whole album comes full circle with the short coda "Watercolour Rush", a reprise of the guitar line from the album's opening track.

Like his previous Fireman album, there is no information on the CD cover apart from the song titles. However, there is a photo of Paul's backside with the word "Man" written across it in suntan lotion. This is another fine piece of work from Paul McCartney and once again shows off his willingness to create music that is a departure-from-the-norm. This is also another sought-after collector's item. If you're a Paul fan, this is definitely a must-have.