Oh Well, Goodbye – BG092 (Hail Hail Records/Bleeding Gold Records)

With the ongoing talk of the format's renaissance, Liverpool label Hail Hail Records, an orbiting satellite of fellow Merseyside set-up Edils Recordings, unveil the BG092, the debut EP cassette by Oh Well, Goodbye.

Effectively the solo project of label boss PJ Rourke, sticksman for excellent synth-gloom merchants People//Talk, the set was written and recorded in a burst of solo activity earlier this year.

Deliberately lo-fi, what the tape may lack in studio polish is made up in raw spontaneity, with track 4 ‘You There?’ consisting of little more than a rhythm guitar track, overlaid with a simple arpeggio, tambourine and vocal. Aiming for short and sharp, the longest track present clocks in at a mere two a half minutes, with the entire running time under quarter of an hour.

Issued through cult San Fran label Bleeding Gold for the US, BG092 continues People//Talk’s fondness for naming releases after matrix numbers.

Possessing the feel of a live radio session, opener ‘Hey, Alright’, it's vari-speed vocal dimly redolent of The Smiths’ Bigmouth Strikes Again continues the effect of the cassette being an unearthed Peel Session.

Shot through with a shrugging, resigned feel with a hint of submerged bitterness surfacing on key track ‘August Eyes’ which matches Rourke’s vocal with a spoken word chorus, in contrast with the apathetic shrug of lyrics, everything here is imbued with deep-rooted melodies, in keeping with the skewed pop of Rourke’s day-job band.

Something of a curio, albeit one of considerable quality, the songwriter states that the EP is a complete one-off, something of a pity on this evidence.

Oh Well, Goodbye play:

03/09 - Liverpool -Maguires' (EP Launch)
12/09 - London - Windmill (Dignan Porch alldayer)
17/10 - Manchester - The Castle (Carefully Planned Festival)