James Howard - Peek-a-Boo

Format: LP
Catalogue No.: FAI032
Barcode: 5051142010964
Release Date: 14 Apr 2023
Genre: Singer-Songwriter

Twinkling like a glitterball in an abandoned dancehall, Peek-a-Boo is the ravishing solo debut from James Howard.

Recent credits: electric guitar on Rozi Plain's "Prize" (and key part of live band), co-production and various instruments on Dana Gavanski's "When it Comes," electric guitar on Alabaster dePlume's "Gold" and "To Cy and Lee vol. 1," and other work with Naima Bock, Clémentine March, and Charles Howl.

Recent tours with Rozi Plain (U.K. and E.U.) and Dana Gavanski (U.K., E.U. and U.S.A).

200 COPIES ONLY PRESSED. NON-RETURNABLE.

Lilting lunar lullabies, seductive atmospheres, pretty harmonies and starlit reverie mask an unflinching look at people doing what only people can do, being what only people can be.

File next to: Cass McCombs, Bill Callahan, Naima Bock, Aoife Nessa Frances, Spaceman 3, Robert Wyatt, Scott Walker, Weyes Blood, The Golden Dregs, Marina Allen, Chris Cohen, Kevin Ayers, Daniel Blumberg.

In his South London flat, James Howard gestures apologetically at the mess of books, lined A4 paper and stationary at his desk. “I butcher poetry for a living,” he explains, “It isn’t a pretty job, but someone has to do it.” This being 2022, every emerging musician needs a side-hustle to keep the house warm. In the daytime, our host writes study guides to help teachers teach poetry to pupils who would rather be elsewhere. “I make sure the poems are clinically dead by the time they reach the schools.”

An explanation punctuated by a mildly contrite shrug makes you want to lean forward and remind Howard about some of the stuff other people are doing for a living. And, more to the point, aren’t doing. Which brings us to the real matter at hand. For Howard, foregrounding his own songs hasn’t always come naturally. An enthusiastic collaborator, he made two well-received albums with his previous band Blue House and played with the likes of Rozi Plain, Alabaster dePlume and his wife Dana Gavanski, as well as running his own music night with Sam Tyler in London, Incredible Society. It’s important to mention these creative hook-ups because Howard feels that, in one way or another, they all helped to give form and shape to the lilting lunar lullabies that would ultimately comprise his ravishing solo debut Peek-A-Boo.
Peter Paphides

Titles: 01 Level 1 02 Child Starz 03 County Line 04 Level 2 05 The Reckoning 06 Family Values 07 Level 3 08 When the Sun Dies 09 Last Words of a Cult Leader 10 Level 4 11 Baloo (digital only)