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clash magazine
On the road, some musicians blog, others take photos and maybe one or two write a journal. I'd say even less compose instrumental tour diaries. However, while on tour playing keyboards for Echo and The Bunnymen, Paul Flemming made memories into songs, composing this wondrous instrumental tour diary to document his impressions of the different places and times he performed. And the result, a thirteen-track industrial drive along roads of ambient melodies, which is just as much a conceptual log as it is skin pricklingly authentic. Though exactly what relationship each song, its arrangement, sound and mood has to the location that Flemming credits to it is unmeasurable, the Brighton inspired 'Pebble Shore' trickles piano drops on your cheek while 'Red Skies and Factories' - recorded in his home studio - dances flashily in front of a comparatively sombre Mogwai.
04/08
krugermagazine.com
Inspired by his travels on the road with Echo and The Bunnymen Baltic Fleet AKA Paul Fleming set about writing his debut LP. Mixing world music beats, guitars and dreamy electronica the album was built up from snapshots in time between destinations. The distorted synths of Black Lounge sweep through the frosty mountains of Spain, while 3 Dollar Dress is named after an encounter with a girl in the bars of Houston, Texas.
All instrumental, this can fade into the background but certain moments, like the Joy Division guitars on 3 Dollar Dress grapple to the fore.
It’s all too easy to describe this as musical journey, because literally each song belongs to a certain place. 48 Hour Drive conjures images of bleak cities like those of Sofia Coppola film Lost In Translation as it drifts along. Though it belongs to USA not Japan.It’s easy too to tell the shifts in mood while making the record, ‘Rekjavik Promise’ is full of positive energy while Pebble Shore holds a certain bleary eyed nostalgia in its simple piano chords. Recorded in a Brighton market it stirs up ghosts of the long lost glitz and glamour of the pier. The Design takes its cue from off kilter showmen Beirut with its hypnotic swirling fairground sound.
An overwhelming air of restless tension shadows the record. It’s held back, constantly waiting to burst through but never quite getting there. There are signs of greatness here though, Berlin 8mm Deep echoes Sigur Ros at their most poetic. Noises that sound like the wind whispering by are back by gentle pianos. Just goes to show, sometimes the simplest things are the most worthwhile.
Kate Parkin, 05/08
fact magazine 'more recommended albums'
Echo & the
Bunnymen keyboardist Paul
Fleming debuts an electronic
album that pits itself
mid-point between DJ Shadow,
Gang of Four and Neu!
#24, 02/08
liverpool echo
Interesting musical project from Paul Fleming, who recently played keyboard for Echo and the Bunnymen on their world tour. It’s a musical record of his adventures on tour, played and initially captured with his laptop and the musical instruments he had with him, or encountered on his journey, on tour buses, aeroplanes and hotel bedrooms, he reflecting moments as they happened, when the feelings about the places and experiences of that odyssey. This makes for a haunting and evocative album that captures the moods and emotions of life on the road. Along with Paul Fleming, this album also features, Will Sergeant, Simon Finley, and Pete Wilkinson. 4/5
22/02/08
the organ
BALTIC FLEET – Baltic Fleet (Blow Up) – Sometimes something just feels right, Baltic Fleet is Paul Fleming’s project – Paul Fleming is current keyboard player with Echo And The Bunnymen and this album was recorded in hotel rooms, during sound-checks and grabbed moments here on found pianos in dressing rooms there during a world tour. Instrumental interpretations of visited cities and chance meetings. Track two – Black Lounge -was recorded on a tour bus driving through mountains from Barcalona to Madrid for instance, 3 Dollar Dress in a Houston sound check after a night out in Austin Texas – you don’t really need to know the circumstance though, you just need to sit back and let it flow and let the relaxed beauty take you with it. Touches on Neu, bits of Eno or OMD or Doves or Sigur Ros and yes those bits of guitar did sound distinctly like the Bunnymen well before the sleeve notes were checked and Will Sargent’s name was spied here and there. This is just a great album - pleasant, refined, relaxing, reflective – fine fine soundscapes and passages and although we dropped a few names, nothing that obviously sounds like anyone or anything else. Just a really pleasant and rather beautiful relaxing uncomplicated uncluttered and rather recommended instrumental album – www.myspace.com/balticfleet or www.blowuprecords.com
19/02/08
rock-a-rolla
Echo and the Bunnymen
keyboard player Paul
Fleming's debut is touched equally by
Eno and Neu!, and modern post-rock/sweeping pop flourishes of Sigur Ros
and Doves, but the two are never mixed
thankfully. Rather, the odd electro-pop
numbers seem almost like an afterthought,
the DJ Shadow-style beats and post-rock cinematics forming the backbone of this eclectic set.
BB, #14, 05/08
rough trade east
Paul Flemming has delivered a faultless piece of instumental music that captures the spirit of Eno, NEU! all the way through to modern post rock and chamber music. The album swerves from haunting piano pieces ala donnie darko full of melancholy to driving upbeat kraut inspired propulsive grooves. This is getting heavy rotation in rough trade east and is one of our tips for the top in 2008 oh and by the way he is the touring keyboard player for Echo and the Bunnymen if you want some information to dazzle your friends.
17/03/08
the organ
BALTIC FLEET – Baltic Fleet (Blow Up) – Sometimes something just feels right, Baltic Fleet is Paul Fleming’s project – Paul Fleming is current keyboard player with Echo And The Bunnymen and this album was recorded in hotel rooms, during sound-checks and grabbed moments here on found pianos in dressing rooms there during a world tour. Instrumental interpretations of visited cities and chance meetings. Track two – Black Lounge -was recorded on a tour bus driving through mountains from Barcalona to Madrid for instance, 3 Dollar Dress in a Houston sound check after a night out in Austin Texas – you don’t really need to know the circumstance though, you just need to sit back and let it flow and let the relaxed beauty take you with it. Touches on Neu, bits of Eno or OMD or Doves or Sigur Ros and yes those bits of guitar did sound distinctly like the Bunnymen well before the sleeve notes were checked and Will Sargent’s name was spied here and there. This is just a great album - pleasant, refined, relaxing, reflective – fine fine soundscapes and passages and although we dropped a few names, nothing that obviously sounds like anyone or anything else. Just a really pleasant and rather beautiful relaxing uncomplicated uncluttered and rather recommended instrumental album – www.myspace.com/balticfleet or www.blowuprecords.com
19/02/08
uncut
Bunnyman has fun on the
autobahn. Albums written and
recorded on the road often
have a particular sort of
flavour- a rolling tempo and
dislocated,transient feel
that reflecting the manner of
their creation. So it is with
Baltic Fleet. Pieced together
on a laptop as its creator,
Paul Fleming, toured the
world as keyboard player for
Echo And The Bunnymen,
these 13 songs investigate
sombre, Sigur Ros-like postrock,
fuzzy bass grooves,
and on the whooshing "Black
Lounge", an energising stab
at Neu!-style motorik. It's far
from new territory, but
Fleming steers through it
with a steady hand and an
eye for the scenery. 3/5
LOUIS PATTISON 04/08 |
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