Beach Ready - When You Wish Upon A Star
The title of this 3rd full length album by London based Beach Ready (Christopher Cordoba) is taken from the Disney Pinocchio song sung by the character of Jimmy Cricket. However, the follow up to the critically acclaimed "Archipelago" from 2023 is closer in character to one of Cordoba's most played records in his collection, namely, "A Wizard, A True Star" by Todd Rundgren. Like the TR epic, "When You Wish Upon A Star" is a sprawling, ambitious, kaleidoscopic, epic that covers much ground and shows the artist's many talents.
The mostly instrumental album was started during the 2023 Christmas period and was originally initiated by using sketches from Cordoba's extensive recording archive which he began to rework in the holidays.
Delve in and you will find a record that is equal parts joy ("Gluttons") and pain ("Your Wish Is My Command"). Where there is harmony and melody the adjacent track will represent abrasive, abstract, dissonance.
The album kicks off with the doom march intro that is "Faithful Sun" but then swiftly pivots to a breezy, alternate universe, pop hit in "Ride Your Horses", where Cordoba, once again, turns to the considerable talents of Boe Huntress as a writing partner and vocalist. Once again, Cordoba constructed the track from receiving vocals stems from Huntress. The result is nostalgic and uplifting. Ride Your Horse will be the single release from the album.
What follows includes the pure ambient recording in the form of "Middle England Gospel" and "December Untitled", where Cordoba is recording live on site and looping sounds to merge together with the sound of a room, to the agit pop funk of "I Met You At My Party Last Night".
"No I Don't Have A Car" nods to the retro-futurist funk of Flying Lotus.
"Calendar Of Saints" returns to Cordoba's appreciation for the recordings of Harold Budd. The title track has a relaxed Penguin Cafe Orchestra feel and is perfect for hot summer nights.
Intricate, subtly changing patterns are explored in a way both mesmeric and uncompromising, beautiful repetition on "Your Wish Is My Command" and "Field Trip"
An album with an artist at the peak of his powers, largely recording in isolation, looking to the future, that mirrors the several peaks and troughs of all our lives. Does that remind you of any any record from the early 70s?
