STORMCLOUDS REVIEWS

Holding Together: Bill Parry. November 2002. Somewhat more aggressive than "Nightmares In The Sky" (recommended in HT #22), this album features fifteen originals, mostly by Steve Lines, and although some of the drifting psychedelia remains, elements of it veer towards buzzsaw punk and even T.Rexstacy. Fine vocals from Melanie Townsend, a plethora of guitar styles from Lines and Childe Roland - and an inlay that quotes both Arthur C Clarke and Marc Bolan. How cool is that?

Ptolemaic Terrascope: Nick Saloman. June 2001. In which Mr Lines of Wiltshire transfers the vinyl to the silver disc and adds 4 tracks. I must admit I had one of my customary "falling outs" with Steve many years ago. I did write to apologise to him, as it was a pretty unjustified attack, but since then he’s remained incommunicado with yours truly. Quite rightly - I wouldn’t have talked to me again either. And in return I’ve never listened to any Stormclouds muisc. Until now, that is. And guess what? It’s pretty good. All the tracks on this record seem to have been inspired by horror novelists of the Hope Hodgeson, Lovecraft school - so that’s got to be good. The Stormclouds are basically Steve Lines on most instruments and Melanie Towensend on vocals and guitar. The enigmatically monickered Childe Roland contributes stinging flurries of lead guitar here and there. The overall sound is kind of English folk/goth with a sort of dreamy minor key feel to it. Mark Angell adds a few gruff vocals and Ken Flynn crops up on guitars and bass. There’s even a cameo appearance by Reefus Moons, which also has to be a plus. I have to say I found some of the lyrics to be a bit sixth-form, but as I’m often told - who listens to lyrics anyway? Personallyu I spend hours tweaking my lyrics, trying to decide whether "and" sounds better than "but" or if "into" would be better than "onto", so I’m probably being hyper-critical. All in all a worthy piece of work. But I still won’t expect a call from Stevie Boy.

The Borderland - website. John M. Peters. January 2001: This latest album by Stormclouds continues to draw on the rich imagery of fantasy, horror and science fiction writing and movies in a very listenable collection of psychedelia-tinged rock. The writers who have inspired this collection of songs include Brian Lumley, William Hope Hodgeson, Anne Rice, H. P. Lovecraft, George Martin, Sheridan Le Fanu, Isaac Asimov, Arthur C. Clarke, Clarke Ashton Smith, H. Rider Haggard and several others.

Stormclouds consists of Steve Lines: writer/guitarist/other instruments, Melanie Townsend: writer/vocals, Childe Roland: writer/guitars, Ken Flynn: guitars/keyboards/b. vocals, Mark Angell: vocals, Reefus Moons: drums/guitars. Sleep No More contains fifteen tracks, a few more than the vinyl version - the extra tracks being remixes. I'm not going to pick favourite tracks, as usual the standard here is so good I don't think that I can! Just get yourself a copy of the limited edition CD and see what I mean.

Hawkfan Newsletter. Brian Tawn. December 2000: And on a nothing-like-Hawkwind-note, the wonderful Stormclouds have issued a new album called Sleep No More, which you can get from Steve Lines of Rainfall Records at 28 Churchill Close, Calne, Wilts. SN11 8EN. It is available on vinyl and on CD (with 3 bonus tracks) and is £10 (in the UK) payable to Rainfall Records. As I said, nothing like Hawkwind. Lyrics inspired by the likes of H. P. Lovecraft, William Hope Hodgeson, Clark Ashton Smith, Brain Lumley and Arthur C. Clarke heard through the angelic voice of Melanie Townsend and supported by music which includes some of the finest guitar you will ever hear. Excellent!

Prism Volume 24, #6: Pam Creais. November/December 2000. UK: If albums are bought for the artwork alone then Sleep No More is worth buying. The cover art by Lorretta Mansell gives a strong nod towards the Pre-Raphelite master Dante Gabriel Rossetti and his 1863 work, Beata Beatrix, which is currently in the Tate Gallery in London. The lyric book is lavishly illustrated entirely (except for one other painting by Ms Mansell) by Stormclouds main writer/lyricist, Steve Lines. The lyrics create a mood of things gothic, dark and stygian, so the music itself comes as quite a contrast.

To lovers of a gentler more melodic brand of music I suggest they investigate Stormclouds soon.

Prism Volume 23, #2: John Carter. March/April 1999. UK: The wee booklet that comes with the CD (real cool cover art, folks) contains all the lyrics penned by guitar-strumming Steve Lines, a very talented chap for sure. (The vocals are by Louise Allen.) The album consists of eighteen tracks. With such titles as Psychotronic, Metropolis, Alien Kids and Santa is a Spaceman, the album has a 1950’s B-movie vibe.

Most impressive, this album, and well worth a listen. Steve Lines knows his science fiction roots, his lyrics laced with in-jokes a la Richard O’Brien of Rocky Horror fame. They certainly raised a smile of recognition with this good ol’ boy! For example (from the song The Day the Earth Stood Still) "He said his name was Klaatu, I fell in love with him, I just had to."

Rock ‘n’ Roll Fairy: Z. Z. Smith. January 1999. USA: Hey kids! here’s a great gift idea for next Christmas—make a tape of all your favourite Christmas songs and mail the same one to everybody!! It’s cheap, it’s easy and provides the illusion that you custom made the tape just for them! Be sure to include Cosmic Christmas and Santa is a Spaceman from this disc. At this point you may ask: "Are you sure I need TWO songs from those gloomy Brits right next to such undeniable seasonal classics as Snap-Her’s I hate Christmas and that Slint song where the guy goes "I’ve got a Christmas tree inside my head", and I will say YES ABSOLUTELY! Not of This Earth is not only the best disc reviewed in this issue, it’s also billions of parsecs away from a lot of their other stuff. You see, Stormclouds have obviously been captured by aliens and have sent us this transmission of songs about The Creature From Galaxy X and The Boy With X-Ray Eyes from the far reaches of the galaxy. There’s a definite early-80’s thing going on here but don’t call those keyboards cheesy—call them astro-cheesy.

Prism Volume 23, #2: John Carter. March/April 1999. UK: Elsewhere in this issue you’ll see a review of a more recent Stormclouds release, Not of This Earth. First thing to spot is that the female vocalist is different on each album. Why? Don’t ask me. These things happen.

Having never heard of Stormclouds before hearing these two CDs, I’m both surprised and impressed by the scope and talent presented. This group deserve a lot more attention for sure.

Strix #15: Charles Harvey. April 1999. UK: The style of Stormclouds might be described as folk rock. Try to imagine Ralph McTell, The Corrs and John B. Ford rolled up together and it might give you some idea. The melodies are delicately pretty for the most part with Melanie Townsend doing a superb job on vocals. The lyrics are printed in the little book that makes up the front cover, but are hardly necessary since her voice is so clear and the same goes for Ken Flynn who supplied vocals on Remember. Cover artwork is by Steve Lines, known throughout the small press for his short story illustrations. Steve also wrote most of the songs and plays guitars, keyboards, harmonica and bass. What a talent.

The first three tracks, To Sleep, Perchance to Dream, Ocean Jewel and Dream on My Angel sound as if they might have been written for a child. The music has an almost jewel like quality and is filled with images of the sea. I think they are there to lull us into a false sense of security. The next track, Look At Her Eyes starts to change the mood a little, followed by the utterly beautiful November Rain (not to be confused with the Guns ‘n’ Roses song of the same name) and Drifting Away, which had hints of Fleetwood Mac. The title track is full of menace where the guitar distortion pedal is used with great enthusiasm for good scary sounds to match the scary lyrics - horror to music! More scary themes in Heart of Stone, Look At Her Eyes and Looking Glass World, which tells the tale of a woman who has trapped her lover inside her mirror. Pretty, yet frightening at the same time (I wondered what had happened to Thaddeus Breme’s dark mirror), The last track, The Darkest Hour left me nicely chilled. Almost all of the tracks are executed in a deceptively delicate style that belies the menace behind some of the lyrics. One to listen to.

Music & Elsewhere: Mick Magic. 1999. UK: Steve Lines and new vocalist, the delightful Melanie Townsend, present the new style psychedelic folk of the mighty Stormclouds ...with digital clarity! This album has already appeared on vinyl, but the CD has extra tracks and different mixes, so stands up well it it’s own right. It’s a long way removed from the kitsch sci-fi psychepop of Psychotronic, but Stormclouds have lost none of their charm. From the acoustic guitars that brightly open the album, they still have that stunning art of simplicity that is Stormclouds. Mel’s dreamlike voice cuts through the brightness with crystal clarity, inverse electric lead adds a sublimely psychedelic feel, and the background fluety sounds add a touch of Moody Blues progressiveness to boot. Some of the album reminds me of the more gentle side of All About Eve, lilting melodies, a folky/country feel almost. Oh and after all the "could they find a vocalist better than Louise" stuff...well, yes, they could, and did; Mel’s marvellous - makes me go all gooey! Look At Her Eyes is a variation on the theme, Blondie Sunday Girl punkesque and a little bit kitsche, which is no surprise if you remember older tracks like Lost in Space and then there’s the addition of haunting violin (courtesy of Emily Drake) to the gentle guitars and soft calming voice here and there. As for the title track itself, ahh...masterpiece of psychedelia indeed. A wild slice of mayhem with Rustic Rod Goodway on wacky wah-wah guitar, all phased out, forwards and backwards. Whew. The sort of album you need only ears (two of) to love.

The Original Sin #18: Dider Becu. Winter 1998/9. Belgium: If you’re ignored by the press who is ruled by money, it’s still possible to have success. Underground stars, then? Well, Stormclouds definitely are and knowing how important the underground can be, Steve from the band is running his own tape label, Acid Tapes (contact him to get a copy of his huge catalogue!!!) But let’s concentrate at the new release by Stormclouds which is released on their own label, Rainfall Records (previous album Not of This Earth was released on Elefant!). Just like with any other original band it’s quite difficult to describe the music properly but it’s surely a collection of sugarsweet songs balancing on the edge of genius country and excellent indie-Sarahpop. Even if hyped major bands can deliver amazing stuff as well, it really would be a big mistake to overlook excellent stuff such as this.

Holding Together #22. August 1997. UK: Stormclouds have been around for about ten years and this CD is an adapted re-issue of their previous vinyl album, which sold out soon after release last year. Their territory is dream-like, vaguely psychedelic folk and their vocalist Melanie Townsend has a delivery well suited to the mood.

Steve Lines is a fine songwriter, unafraid to nail his emotions to the mast. Many of his songs are desperately sad, ranging from sorrow and pain (Look at Her Eyes) and unrequited love (Dream of You), to missed opportunities (Samantha). Third member Ken Flynn, adds guitar and keyboards and sings the gentle Remember, which has strong Gene Clark overtones.

Hawkfan #26: Brian Tawn. July 1997. UK: Released on vinyl and on CD, with bonus tracks. Stormclouds is the band which includes Steve Lines in the line-up and Steve is a Hawkwind fan from w-a-y back. In fact Steve was doing Hawkwind artwork for me in the pre Hawkfan days when I published a fanzine called Scribe. Despite that long Hawkwind association and interest, Stormclouds do not make Hawkwind-style music. This is a collection of medium paced songs, sung by a lady with the voice of an angel, supported by first-rate musicians. The gentle, laid back approach masks lyrics which suit the album title. As I said, it’s not remotely like Hawkwind (modern folk ballads perhaps...I find it terribly difficult to categorise music), but I play it a lot and think it is terrific, as does Anne.

CD Services: May 1997. UK: Debut album of psychedelic tinged folk with female vocals - the styles vary throughout the album, from Kendra Smith & Sally Oldfield to Shirley & Dolly Collins & Nico. The arrangements are first rate, with echoes of Floyd & Velvets in amongst the heady but deceptively simple, easy to absorb compositions. Overall, a mix of light indie/electric folk from a duo of vocals and multi-instrumental layers. The exquisite and delicate vocals soaring over a solid but ethereal backing from electric/acoustic guitars, drums and bass, with some graceful harmony & multi-tracked vocals along the way. The songs are all really compulsive listening. They get inside your head and remain fresh with every listen. Pace varies from ballad to uptempo, occasionally underpinned by some Lou Reed style guitar, with some songs evoking laid-back early Velvets with Nico. In essence, a magical album which will appeal to anyone into ethereal, modern indie-pop or psychedelic folk.

Astro Zombie: Ollie. April 1997. UK: What I adore about this is that it subtly portrays dark and looming ideologies that are originated from the most feverish of dream visions without the actual need to audibly fuck your head up by paranoia inducing screeches, harsh feedback, spiralling basslines, screams, etc. This is beautiful, flotational psychedelic folk that enables you to gently hover over all that is funeral and look down omnisciently with a sad smile.

The vocals are piercingly emotional, similar to the effects of Dead Can Dance, where you would all of a sudden be thinking twice about your own existence, your past and future and actually feeling the joy of suffering through the passage of time. There are moments when these fears subside and we can reassure ourselves that we are only dreaming, perhaps the life state itself is merely a state of deep unconsciousness and that the next is the epiphanic dawn or awakening from our dark life. The guitars wail gently out circumstance, thrash at the frustration of the moment and massage us with a calming assurance that our suspected madness is only temporal, like hamlet we yearn for true sleep, not the nightmare visions that are a reality but the escaping of this harsh, cruel world, "To Sleep, Perchance to Dream". This album is thoroughly recommended and is perfectly adequate in its objective to haunt our thoughts either in our unconscious nightmares or during our most perceptive moments of self-realisation.

Sound Views: Gary Pig Gold. April 1997. USA: This enticingly enchanting British combo has been recording and releasing music through a variety of labels the world over for upwards of a decade now, toiling confidently away in basic obscurity as other, lesser practitioners of their oeuvre (i.e.: Cramberries) plaster themselves across all the most obvious of situations. Perhaps just in the nick of time then, Stormclouds first "official" album is released, complete with exceptional new vocalist Melanie Townsend on board. The result is music steadily, uniformly dreamful and reclined throughout, inviting - no, pulling you into its midst as few musics can and do in these most truculent of times. Already being favourably compared to Marc Bolan, in his most ethereal of incarnations of course, I’ll take the allusions one step higher as I hear, rather echoes of early Fleetwood Mac and especially Incredible String Band: dew drenched sounds ideal for lazy English afternoons spent beneath the influence of certain potent potables.

Bucketful of Brains: Fernando Naporano. December 1996. UK: After eight cassette-only releases and a couple of singles recorded between ‘86 and ‘94, Stormclouds have come up with their first proper album, and it’s one of their best efforts to date. (This CD version contains three extra tracks from the original vinyl released in August ‘96).

Lyrics like "Lost souls in torment" or "secrets hanging on the wall" embrace a traditional English romanticism and sometimes dwell on mystical and metaphysical issues. On Dream On My Angel and Look at Her Eyes they evoke a melodic and melancholy Velvet Underground circa Jesus or Sunday Morning, but in a more refined vein than Strawberry Switchblade in the 80’s. The panoramic swirl of the Byrds is revisited on Remember (sung by Ken Flynn), whilst some serious psychedelic textures are explored on the title track that filters a West Coast sound in an affected Arabic packaging. Their primary influences, Clay Allison and Opal, still shine through on Looking Glass World and The Darkest Hour, while on Look at Her Eyes they still retain a bit of the old Jesus & MC tag. Overall these 15 well crafted songs are an ideal companion for grey wintry afternoons where the purest British "Nightmares in the Sky" are inherent.

Flickers ‘n’ Frames #26 : John M. Peters. Autumn 1996. UK: This is the first ‘official’ album by SF artist Steve Lines’ group, Stormclouds. I say official because the group have released several cassette albums, but somehow musicians don’t feel that they ‘made it’ until that first slab of vinyl slaps on to the turntable. The album features a revised line-up of Steve Lines and Ken Flynn as multi-instrumentalists and vocalist Melanie Townsend. The album eschews the familiar sci-fi pastiches of previous tapes and contains a collection of mature ‘indie’ style songs. With tracks such as To Sleep, Perchance to Dream, Ocean Jewel, Drifting Away and Dream on My Angel, the album’s theme is clearly about the dreamworld. Coming across album like this restores my faith in music - some friends have got together to make fine music and have done it without the hype and bloated budgets that most artists now look on as the norm.

Rockerilla: October 1996. Italy: Reputed one of the most complete artists of the English underground scene, Steve Lines is well known mainly for his graphic skills; for instance, he’s responsible for the artwork adorning the Crohinga Well cult-’zine. This should not let his musical talent pass unnoticed, as our guy, besides conducting the fabulous Acid Tapes series which documents all sorts of psychedelic ferments, is also the multi-instrumentalist who leads the most weather-influenced project in the British environment, the already tens years active Stormclouds. After four tapes on the aforementioned label, the first vinyl has come out a few weeks ago (soon it will be available as a CD with bonus tracks & alternative mixes), a self production labelled with a new rain loaded brand; meanwhile the original line-up, that was a duo open to occasional collaborations, has been expanded with the replacement of singer Louise Allen with the sensual voice of Melanie Townsend, and with the recruitment of a third element, Ken Flynn.

One of the distinguished mates that shared the artistic path of Steve Lines in the past has been nobody less that ‘Rustic’ Rod Goodway who has been the honoured guest of Stormclouds first tape as well as playing with Steve in a couple of projects (The Tryp, Jellymonsters) captured on Acid Tapes, besides commissioning him a few graphic projects (like the sleeve of the recent Mellifluous Confluence, second Ethereal Counterbalance masterpiece); well, nobody else than Rustic Rod has accepted to take part to Nightmares in the Sky, watering with acid fertiliser the title track which is also the most exciting song on the album, that is anyway superb on the whole, as it abandons almost completely the retro inspiration of the previous tapes, charged with bubblegum music of the Fifties and with minimal garage punk, rather stimulating vibrations close to the spectral bands of the binary system Opal/Mazzy Star. Sparkles of such nature are emitted by the Hamletic To Sleep, Perchance to Dream and the onirical Dream on My Angel, but also by the remakes of Look at Her Eyes and The Darkest Hour, taken from previous episodes and much better performed and produced than the original versions. In Looking Glass World we can even recognise the ghost of Nico in Velvet Times, while a couple of sweeter tasting gems (November Rain, Dream of You) leak droplets of Talulah Gosh/Carousel reticent dew. The quality growth of Stormclouds did thus require the change of format, this time the occasional weak numbers are almost absent (the only song we could question is maybe Remember by chance the only track not sung by the wonderful Melanie) and the weather forecast is happily announcing persistent rain for a long time still.....

Ptolemaic Terrascope: Steve Pescott. October 1996. UK: At last some welcome Stormclouds on the horizon, and if there’s a richer, more human and fulfilling platter released in ninety-six I’ll refute its existence. Back-room orchestrators Steve Lines and Ken Flynn have found a terminally great new vocalist in Melanie Townsend, who, in rockier moments like the "Sweet Jan-ish Look at Her Eyes and the title track of this album resembles the tonsil motion of a Pauline Murray mannequin raised on old Fairport discs, while down in her melancholia (the lush Dream On my Angel or The Darkest Hour) she inches towards the sorely-missed voices of Beverley Martin or Linda Thompson (as was). It’s in this second style, with sympathetic lo-key backing in fifty shades of blue, that these songs will live with you like an old friend for times to come.

Crohinga Well #12. July 1996. Belgium: Stormclouds is a band we’ve known about for about eight years already: it used to be the duo Steve Lines (yes Crohinga Well’s own graphic artist) and singer Louise Allen. They produced a number of cassettes and a few singles filled with quirky, psychy science fiction pop, pretty charming in places. That’s all history now: Steve Lines teamed up with Melanie Townsend and Ken Flynn. The musical concept changed drastically: Stormclouds is now a psychedelic folk band and their first LP is a real gem, displaying a large variety in musical styles. The LP starts with To Sleep, Perchance to Dream, a Shakespearean title that hides a brilliant 1967-sounding fairytale, an early Pink Floyd standard with backwards guitar bits, stoned vocals, etc. Ocean Jewel and Dream on My Angel are calm, serene, esoteric British folk songs of the Sally Oldfield mould. Look at Her Eyes sounds like a folk version of a Velvet Underground & Nico ballad. Melanie’s rich voice is at its best when she sings moody, psychy, somewhat mysterious modern folk of the Kendra Smith type in Drifting Away, Looking Glass World and The Darkest Hour or when she performs like a traditional British folk nightingale in songs like November Rain, Heart of Stone and Dream of You, evoking the memories of legends like Trees, Stone Angel and Shirley & Dolly Collins. Remember is brilliant sixties US folk rock in the Vegetables/Ashes/Byrds vein with Ken Flynn taking over the lead vocals. The absolute highlight of the LP is the title track, a dark, brooding mass of totally stoned-out-of-your-mind folk rock with the haunting - dare I say - ethereal guitar playing of guest musician Rod Goodway. Nightmares in the Sky is one of the ultimate psychedelic folk or folk rock LPs made in Britain during the past few years. It will please those who like a rich female folk voice as well as those who prefer a psych setting for all theses pastoral vibes. Absolute psychedelic folk nirvana, mega-recommended.

Music & Elsewhere: Mick Magic. June 1996. UK: What a totally excellent album this is, introducing the glowing golden voice of Melanie Townsend to the world. There’s always been a very warm and cute quality to Stormclouds, whether on their twee psychotronic space pop or their other acoustic folky side. Melanie slots in as if she’s always been there, even adding some warmth to the band. I thought Louise Allen was an excellent singer, Melanie’s even better. The album’s a nice blend of acoustic folk with electric psychedelia, sometimes fused together on one track, sometimes separate elements. Bright guitars and that beautiful warm voice, reminds me of the girls from Everything But The Girl, makes the hairs on the back of your neck stand on end. Look at Her Eyes sounds almost like vintage Blondie, punky guitar. kitsche Americana vocals, that was quite a surprise! So was the violin on one track (Emily Drake)! Little country elements (not naff country though), most nice. The title track is a classic piece of psyche rock, lovely wah-wah from Rod Goodway, a touch of 70’s mysticism and groove on down. It’s a real shame about the short runs of vinyl nowadays, but it still sounds much better than their cassettes, and a CD will be coming later. This 12" of vinyl is a must anyway, limited to 500, so don’t hang about!

Music & Elsewhere: Mick Magic. 1998. UK: Steve Lines is a pretty well known name throughout subterranean circles via his excellent psychedelic label, Acid Tapes, and he also produces some very fine music. This one is the most recent cassette album we have, 1995 vintage, and don’t forget Stormclouds are for life, not just for Christmas! Another psychedelic masterpiece is this, and it really shows off the full range of the band’s abilities, so it’s a good introduction to the more recent CD work. Acoustic and electric guitars mingle together with Pinky & Perky femme vocals (still Louise Allen at this time), all with jingle bells on top. Hey, Santa Claws is Freddy Kruger, don’t you doubt it! Some charmingly humorous psychefolk ballads with rather angelic vocals, classic cheesy keyboards solos, vintage Stormclouds space bubblegum numbers, tinky town keyboards rhythms, fuzz guitar and psychotronic movie clips, psychokitschespacepunk that captures the teen spirit of The Shangri Las (!), from Kirsty MacColl to The Revillos, it’s all here, that sound that is pure Stormclouds. The full range of music, the full range of vocals, from psychotronic bimbo right up to the folky beauty of Sonja Kristina. So here it is, merry Christmas!

Music & Elsewhere: Mick Magic. February 1996. UK: A typically twee psychotronic masterpiece from Steve Lines and Louise Allen. Christmas may be over but you’ll love this album madly anyway. It’s Stormclouds. Stormclouds are for life, not just for Christmas! Acoustic and electric guitars, Pinky & Perky vocals from Louise, and all with jingle bells on top. Santa Claws is Freddy Kruger, ya know, he’ll rip your heart out before you ever get your pressies, all his secrets are revealed on this album, trust me, I’m a spaceman. Some nice and humorous acoustic ballads with Louise singing (at the correct frequency) beautifully as usual, classic cheesy keyboard solos complete the kitscheness of it all. Plenty of them classic Stormclouds style space-bubblegum numbers, tinky toy keyboard rhythms, fuzz guitars and genuine psychotronic (well Christmas type) movie clips. Psychokitsche punk that captures the teen anthem spirit of The Shangri Las, from Sonja Kristina to Pinky & Perky, from Kirsty MacColl to the Revillos, Santa is a spaceman and he’s coming to abduct you for all sorts of nasty experiments! So here it is, Merry Christmas everybody...

MMATTRIX #6: Mick Magic. December 1992. UK: Oh yeah, I love this band, amongst my absolute favourite bands ever ever ever. Real thrilled to finally get some for out M&E label. This album is a collection of live material showing two contrasting sides to the band. Half of it is sort of folky based, Steve Lines on acoustic guitar and the very talented Louise Allen singing. This girl’s voice is as close to Heaven as you can get, trust me, the richness of Sonja Kristina (Curved Air) and the versatile tones of Kate Bush, some real cool songs too. The other half is from their psychotronic material, like the B52’s, a sort of kitsche Hawkwindish thing, but quite unique. Louise even reminds me of Pam-Pam from X Ray Pop on the magic Batman song, Night of the Bat.

Crohinga Well #6. November 1993. Belgium: The history of Stormclouds goes back about ten years already, and a lot has happened in that period of time. We’re not going into any great detail regarding their musical exploits and different releases here, because we’ll be publishing an in-depth study of Stormclouds in one of the next issues of Crohinga Well.

Devoted fans of Stormclouds might raise an eyebrow or two when exploring this latest release: the usual joyful and amusing SF pop is replaced here by a collection of acoustic demos, turning it into a showcase for Steve’s competent guitar playing and Louise’s full and rich voice. Tracks like Ocean Jewel, Looking Glass World and Baby Moonlight will never storm any hit parades, but will certainly be of interest to people who enjoy acts like Mazzy Star, Kendra Smith and Evergreen dazed.

Ptolemaic Terrascope Vol. 4, #2: Phil Mcmullen. August 1993. UK: Acid Tapes themselves incidentally have put out another Stormclouds cassette from label guru Steve Lines and his beau Louise Allen; a collection of acoustic material, songs like We Believe are achingly beautiful; starry night moonshine to woo by.

Perfect Pop Records: May 1994. Sweden: Do androids dream of electric sheep? Course not! They dream of the latest Stormclouds single! Don’t miss this spaceship! The best thing that has happened to planet Earth since Kenneth Arnold’s UFO-sightings in ‘47!

Ptolemaic Terrascope: Phil Mcmullen. Spring 1994. UK: Cosmic Casio music with all the usual off-kilter lyrics, it’s released as a taster for a forthcoming CD, which will in fact act as an epitaph for the band, albeit not the final word, since the hottest gossip in the village last Christmas had it that singer Louise Allen had taken the lyrics to He’s Trash on the EP to heart and buggered off, leaving her other half, Steve, in the lurch. Undeterred however, Steve’s found a new singer called Melanie Townsend who is by all accounts a Hot Property (as they say in the Hollywood district of Calne) and together they have leapt off in an entirely new direction, "concentrating more on the Mazzy Star/Mary Chain/Kendra Smith style of folk psych rather than sci-fi/fuzz pop" according to the man himself. And the best of luck to them too.

Perfect Pop Records: May 1994. Sweden: Stormclouds is pure PSYCHOTRONIC delight! Steve Lines and Louise Allen take the world by storm with cheapo fuzzo, canned rhythms and otherworldy female vocals which gives a whole new dimension to the 1 - D world of TRASH. Incredibly funny and incredibly catchy.

Incredible Heaven #3. James T. Rao. April 1993. USA: Science Fiction buzzsaw pop? Real semi-retro sounding, like Lesley Gore on hallucinogenics having a jam session with Roky Erickson and thinking up a theme song for a mid 60’s Japanese horror movie. The B side is a mellow folkdrone, still futuristic.

Choice Words #31. April 1993. USA: They’re back! This 45RPM contains not only a cool new version of Lost in Space, full of fuzzy, thrashy guitar, but offers a real treat on the flip side as well. When Worlds Collide is a soothing ballad that allows Louise Allen’s thoroughly beautiful voice to shine on through.

Flickers ‘n’ Frames #18: John M. Peters. February 1993. UK: I rarely add singles to my collection nowadays but Lost in Space by Stormclouds is well worth seeking out. Stormclouds are musician/artist Steve Lines and vocalist Louise Allen and they have appeared here before with their cassette albums, but this is their first single - and it’s a goody, with lots of breezy guitar and sound bites from old TV shows. The B-side is When Worlds Collide, a much gentler affair with some really fine guitar work and vocals from the duo. This is a limited edition single packaged in a colourful wrap-around lyric sheet illustrated by Steve Lines, featuring Robby the Robot.

What Wave #21: Winter 1992/3. Canada: Bunch of demos, outtakes and other unreleased stuff from this duo that includes Acid Tapes head honcho Steve Lines. Pleasant, acoustic guitar tunes that have a poppy edge to them as well as a bit of a psyche feel. For those times you want to relax while you listen to the music.

Unhinged #9: Henry Race. November 1991. UK: OK, so how many really great bands have come out of Wiltshire? XTC, Dave Dee & Co., Magic Muscle and that’s about it? Wrong. Jangle fuzz bubble poppers Stormclouds have proved over the last three years that they’ve got their own particularly unique angle on everything that ever made pop music interesting and exciting. If you want to get the real dirt on Stormclouds’ story I would advise you to consult the back issues of Unhinged and the various Italian and Swedish fanzines that have had the good sense to run articles on them. For now, I’ve got a brand new tape to listen to. Well, I say new, it’s actually a compilation of outtakes/demos/oddities from Stormclouds’ archives, so it’s perhaps unfair to listen to it in the same context as a proper release. Taken in context though as a companion to the mighty body of work on Acid Tapes, it provides a worthy insight into the peculiar world of a band whose songs are as much influenced by Rupert Bear, Rip Van Winkle, The Space Family Robinson and Mick Farren as they are by Ramones, Jesus & Mary Chain, T. Rex and The Archies - a combination that I’ll settle for any day. Almost all of the ten tracks on this tape demonstrate a frighteningly well developed pop sensibility, you know the stuff, a handful of chords, chilling harmonies and hook lines in the chorus that you’d kill to have written yourself. Perhaps my favourite on this tape is New Gods - A Dinosaur Jr. massive wall of sound gives Steve Stormcloud the chance to be Jay Mascis and play a wonderfully fuzzed solo next to a chorus that you’ll be singing all night - once you’ve heard it. I don’t want to spoil the surprise for you all when you eventually get to this, but there are a couple more songs that are especially worth mentioning here. Remember - an outtake from the Raindrops tape. If the sleeve notes are to be believed the song is about Michael Stipe going to sleep alongside Rip Van Winkle for a hundred years then going back to his home town to find no one remembers him. Remember when this town was your home, Michael? Let’s Talk About Love is in fact a demo version of the song that finally appeared on the New Kind of Kick EP and comes from the area where Transvision Vamp collide with Kassenatz-Katz and is as fine an example of trash-bubblegum pop as I’ve heard all year. I could go on but all of this tape is worth your money, time, attention and energy. Buy it, listen to it, sing along to it, grow to love it, play it in the car, play it to your friends, play it to your children, give it your Mom and Dad for their Christmas present. Let’s make Stormclouds the superstars they deserve to be.

MMATTRIX #6 #9: Mick Magic. December 1992. UK: This is more than an album, this is a psychotronic experience. The tracks are linked by clips from famous movies of the genre, and TV shows like "Lost in Space" and "Star Trek", naturally. Bouncy toytown sequences and beatbox, fuzzbox guitar and twee vocals, sometimes slightly sped up for extra psychotronic effect. The Revillos meet the B52’s, jam on some old T. Rex, play around with M’s Moonlight and Muzak and become the Shrangri Las in space.

Flickers ‘n’ Frames 16: John M. Peters. June 1992. UK: Stormclouds have been mentioned before in this column, basically a duo of vocalist Louise Allen and Steve Lines on instruments and vocals, they now have four albums available on Acid Tapes. Along with Psychotronic, there is It’s Raining Still, Raindrops and Lost in Space. The debut album, It’s Raining Still stands out from the rest as being decidedly country-folk orientated with some melodic songs. However from Raindrops on the group slimmed down to the aforementioned duo and their sound radically changed, with all the songs taking on a definite science fiction/trash horror influence - especially of the trashy films of the 50’s and 60’s.

Hence titles such as The Creature From Galaxy X, The Ungrateful Dead, Satellite Baby, Lost in Space and Galaxina. Louise Allen has a voice that can mimic the heroines of 50’s trash films to a ‘T’ and the use of samples dialogue mixed to Steve Lines fuzz guitar and drum box adds spice to songs that set your feet tapping from the first revolution of the tape spindle. It’s a shame Stormclouds are not more widely known, as all sf fans would appreciate the humour and affection the group have for the genre.

Unhinged #9: Paul Ricketts. November 1991. UK: This tape is in the weirdly psychedelic vein rather than their usual fuzzed pop bubbles, using keyboards and special effects more than guitar to re-record a bunch of old favourites such as Lost in Space and The Creature From Galaxy X as well as a bunch of new numbers which almost incidentally answer the question that has long plagued me about how The Seeds would have sounded if they had simultaneously been overdosed on Helium and Largactil. The new songs are all short - apparently the length of time of what could be programmed into the keyboards memory. The resulting sound is like being caught in an episode of The Time Tunnel. It’s strange and amusing, though none of the songs have the impact of the original versions; instead they drift as if in and out of a dream, Louise’s vocals echoed so far that they have a blurred feel to them and when the music hits a fast tempo as on The 2 Dimensional Man the sound is more reminiscent of such outer space explorers as The Tornadoes or The Sputniks, the world of outer space as seen through ‘50’s coloured goggles. If you can listen to this and not see visions then your senses must be radically different to mine. That’s not to imply it’s all jokery. The Day the Earth Stood Still is a gentle lullaby verging on the Hawaiian, a sort of country girls falls in love with a spaceman tale that is required lonely night listening here, but in intent and effect it is a Stormclouds side-track not the next fireworks display.

Flickers ‘n’ Frames #13: Carl Meewezen. Summer 1991. UK: "If you’re too old you’ll be embarrassed! If you’re too young, you won’t understand!" says the advert. I guess I must be just the right age, as I think this fun-filled collection of quirky, amusing and highly unusual songs is terrific entertainment.

Psychotronic is cheaply produced, slightly amateurish and at times too whimsical. But the affectionate parodies and mocking tributes to both 50’s SF movies like THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL and long-running TV shows like LOST IN SPACE are enjoyable overall.

Hairy Hi-Fi: John Bagnall. Summer 1991. UK: Tacky sci-fi and psych beat collide in the best ‘clouds tape yet (and they’re prolific little beavers when it comes to output.) Several spacy ‘clouds classics and some newies are fed into a continuous programme of cute galactic distortion.

Midnight in Hell #6: June 1991. UK: A collection of very lightweight songs intended as a tribute to the group’s favourite sf , TV and movies, notably Lost in Space, The Man With X-Ray Eyes and Star Trek.

While it is initially pleasant to listen to (with the occasional lyrics in a few of the songs) it is hard to determine where the group’s musical influences lie - possibly Fuzzbox and Neil Innes. The fact that the songs all sound the same becomes very irritating after a time. I listened to the tape three times in a row, and half-way through the second I found myself ignoring the music and listening to the various pieces of soundtrack sampling which appear throughout the tape.

Paul Ricketts: Unpublished. December 1992. UK: Lost in Space may be similar to Raindrops, but it was no duplicate. Fuzzed for sure, but the rhythms under the fuzz are all Bolan, whose beat subtly runs through this in the same unexpected way it ran through Opal’s Happy Nightmare Baby album and for those of you asleep in your ears, there was 20th Century Girl to make the tribute obvious. This use of Bolan is surprisingly underused in contemporary pop - I would have expected the influence to spring up mutating through the 80’s just as 50’s Chuck Berry resurfaced mutating through the 60’s. Still this ranks as Stormclouds’ most satisfying release, simply an exuberant parcel of pop songs from the sci-fi’/trash culture of Lost in Space, Shadowqueen, Satellite Baby and Junk; the flaring anger of Get Lost and The Last Song; the disjointed dreaming of Sandman (the detuned TV feel of this would soon surface as the whole Psychotronic tape), the death songs like Candy (the country music morbidity keeps surfacing, even if the sound disappeared from Stormclouds music with the banjo), the sole sparse acoustic muser Heart of Stone, to the classic pop of Let’s Talk About Love, which reappeared on vinyl on an EP free with Sweden’s New Kind of Kick magazine.

Unhinged #6: Paul Ricketts. Spring 1990. UK: It’s quite simply the best pop collection I anticipate hearing in 1990. Even if the Jesus & Mary Chain get an LP out this year they’re going to have to bust a gut to come up with something better. Stormclouds are still just Steve Lines playing the music, gtrs, keyboards, bass and drum box programmed almost as free as a kit drummer, and Louise Allen on voices. Right from the opening title track the sound as well as the songs leap out at you with an impossible combination of catchiness and power. Lost in Space is full of steals from the TV series, which I is just as if the cast had reassembled to help record this. The songs here are the best collection that they’ve written and should be singles, should be on the radio in the same way you could tell from the first time you heard Blondie or the Ramones that they should be on the radio with hits. These songs are primarily pop songs, in that they could be hummed by anyone. The playing is basically fuzzed guitars, playing with a rush that sweeps the words along without ever making the indistinct. The pick of the songs apart from the title track are Let’s talk About Love which is one of those pop songs, like early Beatles, or classic Beach Boys which you experience but don’t/can’t dissect. In 1990 this is the spirit of pop and anyone who’s still deaf to this music must be living in a strange dim world. This is up to date in the same spirit as the Zebra Stripes LP and is easily the most played tape in this pile. There’s the two acoustic tracks, Heart of Stone and Junk which give respite from the race in the middle of each side. Shadowqueen is an Opal steal, let’s be sure everything here is a steal, but that IS what pop is always about. Show me someone who claims to be original and I’ll show you a liar - nobody, not even such figures as Captain Beefheart could claim to be original. Opal filtering Bolan rhythms which were a side of Chuck Berry taken in isolation and accentuated; now that rhythm is uplifted from Opal’s dark moods into this excitement. It’s not all sunshine by any means, though songs like Satellite Baby and Lost in Space are straight fun, there’s a lot of anger (Get Lost), undercurrents, maybe not as many corpses died for love as is usual in Steve Lines’ lyrics (there’s still Candy in the song Candy) and pain and love (Junk). With this, their fourth release, Stormclouds seem to be getting a control of voice and instruments and of the recording process to get it across, that is making their music more essential every month and their constant refusal to make people aware of what they’re doing the more frustrating.

Unhinged #5: Paul Ricketts. Winter 1989. UK: It’s a light as air, throwaway pop rush, sometimes quiet, almost folky but track by track getting more and more fuzz laden with interruptions of found sound from films to tie together the Christmassy theme. From the singalong Groovy Yule with its chittering leprechaun voices under it like the intrusion of the pagan ceremony that it really is. It’s Like Christmas - "Everyday’s like Christmas when you’re here" is the really syrupy love song. Stormclouds is a sleighride through the sky in the same way that ‘Roadrunner’ is a driving song. Christmas Kiss is the Ramones brought to Christmas with echoes of Spector (these Christmas collections have a fine tradition there). Last track is Santa Claws where the usual theme of loss and heartbreak and death that haunt Stormclouds’ songs comes out in a countryblue song. The tape ends with Santa being blown up. Either that or he gets fed up and blows up the kiddies.

Paul Ricketts: Unpublished. December 1992. UK: This is a million miles away from the angst etc. of all modern rock’s singer songwriter types from James Taylor to Henry Rollins. The trick is that pop doesn’t attempt to be meaningful, it aims to be important for three minutes. If Stormclouds lack the Chinnichap sense of theatre, they have the humour and sense of fun (the droogish swaggering The Ungrateful Dead is fun(ny) rather than the too conscious humour of Rubberneck Chicken on the first tape). And long before such bands as The Pooh Sticks, Stormclouds were inhabiting their songs like cartoon characters in a cartoon world - the B-movie thrust of The Creature From Galaxy X, He’s Trash (both of which were previously issued on an Unhinged flexi disc) and The 2 Dimensional Man. At live gigs from around this time they usually looked like they’d just stepped out of a TV show such as "Scooby Doo", though if Louise looked like one of the mini-skirted heroines, Steve’s sardonic scowling, even if prompted by equipment malfunctions, made him out more like one of the villains from the show. The acoustic side is limited to Look At Her Eyes, otherwise all the songs that would be folkier, such as Down to the Sea, which surfaced on a later compilation tape in an acoustic version; To Tuesday, a mind dislocated song re-recorded from the first tape and Hideaway, the closest Mary Chain cop are all given the fuzzed up treatment, even the psyche song, It’s Raining Still, that they couldn’t get down satisfactorily for the tape of that name gets the fuzz. For all the blackness of the cover, this album is just too sneering and feisty to be depressed and down.

Evening Advertiser: September 1988. UK: Imagine the pop sensibilities of Blondie welded onto the crushing guitars of Jesus & Mary Chain. That’s Stormclouds who have just released a cassette album on their own Acid Tapes label. Raindrops is packed with fuzzy, blurred nuggets such as To Tuesday, Look At Her Eyes and The Two Dimensional Man. Stormclouds are Louise Allen (vocals) and Steve Lines (instruments). They are cheerfully hurling all sorts of items into the melting pot, from Spector to punk, the Velvets to Blondie, The Byrds to the Go Gos. The Creature From Galaxy X opens the cassette with punk propelled rhythms and sci-fi effects. He’s Trash sounds like classic Blondie reinforced with churning serrated guitars. Down to the Sea explodes in a ball of screechy feedback. Shades of the classic ‘Notorious Byrd Brothers’ album are evident on the countryfied It’s Raining Still. Play it before John Peel does.

Forced Exposure #15: Summer 1989. USA: This co-production by Unhinged fanzine and the Acid tapes concern features a guy/gal duo who didn’t impress me unduly with the cassette debut. This thing, however, has the right ingredients (Ramones/fuzz gtr. gal vox, drumbox, space effects) to make my table turn right around: which it does.

Unhinged (second issue): Paul Ricketts. July/August 1988. UK: The Stormclouds flexi - The Creature From Galaxy X and He’s Trash is the first record by this Calne group, who contrive to be almost unknown outside the ranks of readers of Bucketful of Brains and Sowing Seeds in this country and yet appear on French TV.

It is only a matter of time before Stormclouds hook up with their audience. People who understand lines like "I can’t walk out in the light of day." in Hideaway, instead of playing to pub crowds who just want to boogie. The Two Dimensional Man could be Snatch playing with The Buzzcocks, the former’s humour and bubbling vocals, the latter’s guitar sound. I Don’t Know is even more Buzzcocks (yeah! I got the name right second time. It would have done well as the single after What Do I Get? The tape finished off with Down to the Sea: Louise sings, as an 80’s equivalent of Spike Jones and his City Clickers breaks the recording studio into millions of pieces, none of them bigger than a cassette. I never expected them to get this good so quick. The next one, they should do with a proper drummer instead of a box and it’ll be magic. Especially as now they’re hot, writing faster than they can get the songs recorded on tape.

Paul Ricketts: Unpublished. December 1992. UK: This release was a cassette album called It’s Raining Still. On it they were accompanied by Rod Goodway and Christine Cotter. The tape was a bag of different styles, as if they were casting about to find what they could do. From the garage anger of Don’t Push Me Around to the folksy fluff brought on by a borrowed banjo, which thankfully was repossessed after Preacher Man and Rubberneck Chicken were taped. More promising were the psyche tracks such as Darkness Weaves and When The Dream Fades and the lonesome, eerie acoustic songs such as The Darkest Hour and Turn Away. In the end it was a collection of songs that didn’t hang together with the character of an album.

Mardenbeat #22: Henry Race. April 1987. UK: First off, it’s going to be next to impossible to cast any sort of subjective ear over this; I’ve lived with these recordings and the tales of their origins over the last three or four months. But away with fear and trepidation and press the play button firmly down.

So there you have it - well worth £2.00 of anyone’s hard earned.

Mardenbeat #22: Paul Ricketts. April 1987. UK: Stormclouds are marked out by two individual traits. One is the excellence of Louise Allen’s singing, especially when double tracked singing harmony with herself, the other is the way Steve Lines’ lyrics get better and better. From songs like The Boy With the X Ray Eyes, or even It’s Raining Still where the words don’t flow or don’t make much sense he has now turned to songs that actually benefit having a lyric book.

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