Fink. Sideshow. Simple. Aus.

So I picked up acoustic singer Fink's album 'Biscuits for Breakfast' two year purely by chance, really just because the sleeve looked nice. Its brown recycled cardboard with Fink's face on it! It turned out to be an album I played endlessly. Only 38 minutes long and pretty easy listening. Stoned earthy lyrics about doing pretty normal stuff, chatty vocals and good guitar hooks.

Fink Pills In My Pocket
^ He's at Glastonbury 2000 trying to find his girl. He finds her. She's with someone else. Fairly standard. Pissed off he gets messy. In his tent.

His lastest Fink album 'Distance and Time' came out in October. And its more of the same. A lot of the time the accompaniment is more held back so its more of his voice. Not a bad thing though.

I also recently found Fink's alterego Sideshow. Sideshow, put out on Will Saul's experimental, Simple sister label, Aus, takes that acoustic energy into a leftfield electronic space. The best tracks are dubby slowed up electronica on 'Polar Bear Dub' which has the same integrity as when he poses as Fink. Erie 'Scary Biscuits' which leads you threw a strange twilight nowhere and 'You've Changed Dub' that starts off with frantic prescussion confusion before finally dropping (along with the penny) into spacey electronic dub. The LP also comes with deep spacey dancefloor versions that without would have made the album a bit weak. Mike Monday, John Tejada and Mathew Jonson all get to work on the originals. But by far my favourite is Jesse Rose's jacked up version of 'Philly Soundworks'. Still very mellow.

Sideshow You've Changed Dub
Sideshow Philly Soundworks (Jesse Rose)