Little Storping In The Swuff: Baroque Anxieties (Spin Out Nuggets)

A member of Medway based indie notables Brigadier Ambrose, David Goggin has struck out on his own with lush pop outfit Little Storping In The Swuff. Taking their name from a fictional village in genius, defiantly bonkers 1960s spy series The Avengers the moniker is absolutely spot on, invoking the series' mixture of a peculiarly English whimsy mixed with strange psychedelic interludes and espionage movie inflections. Syd Barrett and Ray Davies explored this fertile terrirtory in the late 1960s, while the arrangements at times recall Pulp and underrated nineties misanthropes The Auteurs.

Handling the bulk of the instrumentation himself with an assortment of friends assisting on strings and brass, Goggin's lyrics focus on life's mundanities and trivial pitfalls. Prickly David and the largely instrumental Ballade De Maladie tackle barbeques and stomach ulcers respectively, while Sunday Evening At Your Nan's conjures up images of out of season seaside resorts.

French Exit, a term for making low-key departures from social events and Pea Soup are steeped in Syd Barrett-isms, the latter's We painted the doorframes yellow / It brightened up the room / We should have done it soon too' reminiscent of The Madcap Laughs cover art. On the down side Take Me More Seriously is slightly overlong at five minutes and the guitar solo on Chokeslammed could do with being a smidgen louder but these are minor quibbles.

A location well worth visiting, the LP is village's worth of evocative kitchen sink baroque pop with much for fans of early period Pink Floyd and Village Green-era Kinks to savour. 4/5