REVIEW: Stone Anthem Solus Rex album review

Child prodigy’s in popular music are reserved for the sparce cherished few, Steve Winwood, Stevie Wonder and Aphex Twin are amongst a strict select group quickly mastering their cannon of instrumentation, going on to compose music with a discernment for creative excellence.

Stone Anthem aka Archie Ingram is firmly of the same ilk, having composed stellar material for Castles In Space label, new album Solus Rex is set for release via David Barker’s Glass Modern Records. Barker having previously released timeless material by fellow intergalactic psych kings Spacemen 3, Solux Rex is just a rare pearl in an ocean of oft musical commotion.

Opener The Satirist takes you on a perennial journey mixing The Cure delicate synths with Sonic Boom, who also champions the album in the sleeve notes, spaced out vocals; Findo Gask breaks through the daybreak with meteoric symphonic guitar sunbursts; Fear finds The Velvet Underground tendencies balancing delicate guitar patterns deftly added to a glorious symmetry; Roses On The Esplanade has multiple layers of angelic choral loops; if you can imagine Slowdive’s opening clavier gambit from Slomo brought into full song then you have Laid Out In Time; Damaged could well be Tame Impala’s new single; envisage Donavan locking horns with Syd Barrett Pink Floyd then you’d brainstorm Swanswell Gate; with the final otherworldly It Still Sleeps concluding the set, I don’t think there is any other words to describe the full album other than spine tingling.

At a delicate blooming age Ingram still has time and the ingenuity to create yet more amaranthine sonnet poems if Solus Rex is anything to go by, the future is indeed definitely very bright.