Pulco, O’r Tu Allan. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7/10

The flavour of music will normally be governed by what surrounds you, play a lot of Rock, then Rock will be your weapon of choice when it comes to playing something that the brain craves. Likewise, if you spend your life taking in the thoughts of the beautiful but abstract then, the seemingly nonfigurative but somehow alluring sounds that capture the ear, perhaps by accident, perhaps driven by some audible design, then it is no wonder that the music you begin to create is seen by some in the same class as Picasso or Van Gogh, it is isn’t everybody’s cup of tea but it is enlightening to some.

It is a conundrum posed by Pulco in the collection of songs that inhabit O’r Tu Allan, a set of musical anecdotes that draw more from the outside world than the inner thoughts; it won’t resonate with everybody but to some they will find a way to explore what lays beyond the pre-conceived ideas of what makes music, what makes it tick.

O’r Tu Allan is the outside, it is the generosity that gives the artist reason when they stop listening internally and concentrate instead on the noise without form, it is the dusting down of the information received, the intelligence that comes from the most interesting of sources, real life, experiences beyond the subtly of flowery delivery, instead it is the insightfulness that creates a picture such as Sunflowers, it might not be genius but it is honest.

With tracks such as Trychinebau, Torri Lawr, Brechdan Gaws, Pendramwnwgl and Man A Man A Mwnci all catching the ear, the taste of the Welsh language driving home the spirits of expression, of art meeting abstract and being taken on a long industrial ride through soundscapes and the meaningful escapes witnessed when one does not depend on making sense on the world but instead offers a different view point, a certain allusion to the diverse; after all it what is on the outside that matters.

Ian D. Hall