More than 18 years since he left the public spotlight, David Baker, enigmatic frontman of the original Mercury Rev, is back with new band Variety Lights. The long overdue new release Central Flow is a collaboration between Baker and synth savant Will MacLean and demonstrates that Baker has lost none of his flair for the extraordinary, the experimental and the exceptional.
As co-founder and vocalist of Mercury Rev, Baker helped create their revolutionary sound with their first two (and best) albums; 1991's Yerself Is Steam and 1993's Boces. The innovative Buffalonians were loud, fun and hugely influential in the UK where their work was excitedly gushed about by the British music press. As Chris Roberts wrote in his review of Yerself Is Steam for Melody Maker "At last, one of those rare records that revolve along once in a blooming moon and have something new to struggle to say... A daring, brazen, and demented juxtaposition of voice and guitars and timpani flings Mercury Rev, lemming like at your more responsive caches of fear." If you're wondering, that was meant to be a rave.
Having left the band in 1993, Baker went on to release a solo album World under the moniker Shady, which featured members of the Boo Radleys, Rollerskate Skinny, Swervedriver and Th' Faith Healers (remember them? Didn't think so). At times soaringly catchy and lightheartedly loony, World is a sonic adventure which someone writing for Vox described as "... awash with fragments of dense noise, stumbling, narcotic-laced tempos and lyrics from outer space... that mutate into spiky, bittersweet pop."
Although there has been much speculation about his life during his time away from the public eye, Baker has continued to make recordings and is an avid music fan, working as a producer for various artists. Now he is back, morphed and transmogrified into Variety Lights, a name lifted from Federico Fellini's 1950 cinematic debut. After Eminem forever ruined the name Shady, Baker clearly had to come up with something new. Copping the title from an obscure Italian film about an old dude and his band of misfits seems perfectly fitting for his new project and he can also rest easy knowing that there's absolutely no chance that Marshall Mathers or anyone associated with him has seen it.
When he met Will MacLean, Baker found a songwriting partner who shared a passion for analog synths and electronic psychedelia. Initial experimentation together live to tape - to see how big and crazy just the two of them could sound - started to reveal melodies and Variety Lights was born.
Much of Variety Lights' debut was recorded by Baker at his own Over the Trees studio. The sound was created using a mixture of chained around-the-room 80's era midi expanders as well as the duo's collection of vintage keyboards and combining them with an array of drum machines and effected guitars.
In creating Central Flow, Baker says that "personal adventure is and always has been the most important thing". Baker and MacLean found themselves using references to colours, pictures and describing film scenes to help them communicate about their music. As in his early work, Baker took a richly layered approach, using multiple vocals in a search to find emotion in noises and sounds.
There are plans to play the songs live with a full band including drums and bass, with dates to follow later on in 2012. Have a listen to three tracks from Variety Lights' Silent Too Long EP below...
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