Colin Cowan & the Elastic Stars
Eye of Winter (Independent)

Colin Cowan’s report card says he works well with others, having lent his performance skills to the likes of Dan Mangan, Malcolm Jack, and Woodpigeon, but if you’ve seen him live, you know he’s a wildman. It’s as if John Bonham played upright bass, and that kind of fiery personality can’t stay in the shadows forever.

In 2013, Cowan struck out with his own band, featuring drummer Ben Brown and pianist Chris Kelly, his face and vision front and centre on their debut album, Fall Paths. Eye of Winter is their second in a four- year/four-season album cycle, and marks dramatic change from the debut. The Elastic Stars have been whittled down to only Brown, with the rest of the sounds coming from Cowan’s expansive talent writing for and playing on just about every kind of stringed instrument.

Throughout the record, he proves himself to be as adept on acoustic and electric guitar as he is on upright bass, while his vocals resonate with the heartfelt, impassioned honesty of John Lennon, with some Harry Nilsson lift and Screamin’ Jay Hawkins histrionics. You can practically see the paisley fractals sparking off the campfire around which this album was cosmically forged, as you hear its warm and jangly psychedelic folk unfurl somewhere between early Blitzen Trapper, Beatles, and Brian Jonestown Massacre.