Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Ed Brayshaw is as individual as they come, the sense of the distinct and the specific framing the abundance of ideas and musical outpourings is seemingly personal to him, and despite the immensity of his contribution to others which grace the same playing field, the personality of being is one of character, of a persona who knows exactly the role he is performing and the encompassing truth to which the song never strays.

Following on from the superb Fire Without Water, Ed Brayshaw returns with that deep courage filled persona and musical riches in an album of muscle, command, and imperative belief.

Random Repeat, a movement perhaps stemming from a jazz influence where the progressive chord is given the stage and allowed, insisted up its reappearance during a performance to elucidate the meaning of its presence even in the subtly of the Blues to which it comes from. Yet unlike an echo that keeps giving over a segment of time, the random repeat is a recurrence to which comes out of the blue and can harness the significant connection with the soul, a warning maybe that those that don’t take advantage of listening the first time around will find themselves implicated in its rerun.

For Ed Brayshaw this Random Repeat though is planned, exacting, a celebratory cause, and as tracks such as the opener Storm Warning, originally a Wily Bo Walker track but which makes the most of being a sensational introduction by Mr. Brayshaw, Just Another Night, Who Am I?, Probably Correct, and Tennessee Blues warm the soul and heat the ears with its pounding message of detail, the flow of musical indiscretion forever hanging playfully in the moonlight filled air, so the lyrics and the sound become one, they inhabit the reason with genuine care and attention.

Random Repeat is an album to which only Ed Brayshaw could have weaved together, its own uniqueness is a mirrored reflection of the man himself, of the artist on show, and the private individual waiting in the wings as the notes and narrative take their deserved bow.

A recording which encompasses fire and drama, homeliness and beaty in one fully realised shell, and one that reintroduces the magic at the very heart of Ed Brayshaw’s performing skills to the listener with imagination, furious belief, and delicate, precise love.

Ian D. Hall