Robert Sotelo – Botanical

Nicey Music

Once again, that pseudonym of modern psychedelia and bedroom recording, Robert Sotelo is on the loose, this time firing out a missive courtesy of the good people at Nicey Music. This current cassette only release finds our enigmatic songwriter testing himself by writing solely on electronic keyboards purchased purely for this purpose. So, over the course of eight tracks we are taken on a gentle adventure along the byways and waterways of London for one last time before an uprooting for Glasgow.

There is a different feel to Cusp, perhaps due to the enforced cheap keyboard rule, and it clearly doesn’t have the kind of reach that Cusp had, but it would seem that each Sotelo album or body of work is a bit of a reaction to the previous one. Having said that, the one thing that ties everything together is that voice; a fragile, somewhat whimsical instrument that is so very English. No attempts at transatlantic drawls and lazy pronunciation here, thank goodness, and that so much better suits the vibe of the whole piece.

I don’t know what sort of keyboards were used here, but opener “Mary” has that familiar sing-song sound of the Bontempi organ of my youth, and as soon as anybody of a certain age hears that, they are immediately transported. There is something ever so slightly discordant about the sound and, along with Robert’s reticent vocal telling a tale of an unfortunate individual in whose company he has spent time in a previous life, it evokes a process of stock-taking and mulling things over. There is a thoughtfulness that is buoyed by the jauntiness of the keyboard refrain. I don’t know how many cheap keyboards Robert managed to wangle for this enterprise, but it is fairground all the way on “Looking Backward” with “ba-ba-ba” vocals that are more spring than summer, and “Medal” has the feel of a bedroom Thompson Twins backing that gives way to unfettered psychedelia.

Robert mentions a love of David Sylvian and that can only endear him further to readers of this esteemed journal. Though there is no obvious musical similarity, the sense of wonder at play in the modern tea-dance of “Orangerie” or the waltz-like “Foreverland” has the faintest echo. He harmonises well with himself here to great effect, but one thing I have noticed is that the lyrics are less perceptible than on Cusp, although the “I would like to stay many days” refrain in the pseudo-tropical “Botanical” will ring a bell with everyone. I don’t know if there is a purposeful use of reverb, but the words are a little further into the mix. The discordant steel drum and and wheezing rhythm in the track is lovely.

I am pleased that there is another dancing-related track, “I Dance In Dreams” but it feels as though Robert has aged twenty years since Cusp. From that album’s sprightly exhortation to “Dance with me in the middle of the day”, “I Dance In Dreams” is also a hymn to growing old, and the poor lad can now only dance in his dreams due to aching knees and a list of other amusing age-related complaints.

Robert’s pal Ian McCall adds saxophone to a few of the tracks and gives them just a little touch of sophistication — as if they really needed it — but all in all, Botanical is a lo-fi treat that puts a lid on his London sojourn. We had all better stick around to find out what Glasgow will have to offer.

-Mr Olivetti-