I`m sure people will sigh when they think oh yeah another Beatles tribute but with Jah Wobble at the helm you know it`s not that straight forward. His wife Zi Lan Liao’s family arrived from Southern China and settled in Liverpool. Her father, Mr K.H. Li (Liao Gui Xiong), came over from Guangzhou in 1981 as Chinese Cultural Officer at the Pagoda and went on to establish the Pagoda Chinese Youth Orchestra. Zi Lan came over with her mum and her sister Susan in 1983. When he died in 2013, Zi Lan took over running the orchestra. Jah and Zi Lan Liao`s sons John T (Tian Qi) and Charlie (Tian Yi) who perform together as Tian Qiyi join their father on this release with John T on drums, Chinese percussion and yangqin and Charlie on erhu and all the vocals.
Zi Lan also contributes to the album and plays guzheng on `Strawberry Fields Forever`. So as Sly and the Family Stone once said It`s a family affair on this deeply personal reimagining of The Beatles` psychedelic period.
The first five tracks are numbers that i’m sure will be familiar to most people but the latter five are an interesting and possibly unusual choice. The album opens with what is probably my favourite fab four track with `Tomorrow Never Knows`. The Beatle`s inspiration for this composition came from John Lennon`s experiences with the hallucinogenic drug LSD and the harmonic structure is derived from Indian music. I have to say I loved this reimagining and it retained a lot of the original ambience and spirit but with the band`s own mark. We enjoy another interesting take on `Strawberry Fields Forever` a number that Lennon viewed as his finest work with the Beatles. It`s wonderfully dreamy and trippy and the eastern instrumentation added a real fascinating depth.
Another number that I really love is `Within You Without You` a song that was on the `Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band` album, written by George Harrison and inspired by his stay in India. Strangely enough psychedelic rock legends Strawberry Alarm Clock have also covered this track on their latest and first release for nearly sixty years. This version kind of spirals and is as wonderfully hypnotic as the original. We head into The Magical Mystery Tour with a song that was inspired by Lewis Carrolls 1871 poem The Walrus and the Carpenter with `I Am The Walrus`. It was covered by Oasis, banned by the BBC and The Animals frontman Eric Burdon claimed that he inspired the line “I am the eggman” after telling John Lennon about a sensual experience he had with his girlfriend involving a raw egg couple of acid trips. This adaptation has a nigh on dub like vibe and offers a slightly edgy, moody but enticing ambience.
`Norwegian Wood` is a number that Lennon wrote as a veiled account of an extramarital affair he had in London. An further but uninteresting fact is that I have a Beatles “Norwegian Wood” 100% Silk Men’s Necktie that a friend brought me back from The States as a present thirty years ago. The guys version here is delightfully illusory and almost surreal at times but undeniably respectful. We head into what I would call the lesser known tracks with another George Harrison composition `Blue Jay Way` which maybe sacrilege to say but I preferred to the original which I found was a bit meandering and insipid. At least there feels like something is going on here.
`The Inner Light` is anther George Harrison composition and reflected the bands embrace of Transcendental Meditation. JW&TQ really adopt it and make it their own and take it to a different level instrumentally. The bass and percussion allow a platform for the strings and tender vocalisation to really shine. George`s immersion into Indian instrumentation was again to the fore on `Love You Too` which was included on the `Revolver` album. The reworking here retains a lot of that influence but has an almost wider more expansive cinematic feel.
`Flying` was an instrumental that we needed for Magical Mystery Tour according to The Beatles. The version here is a brief dub re-fashioning and it would be hard to hear the original in this version if i`m honest. The closing track is `Rain` a song that was on the B-side to Paperback Writer` and a song that Ringo was quoted as choosing as his favourite Beatles song. Lennon said it addressed “People moaning because … they don’t like the weather”. Another interpretation is that the song’s “rain” and “sun” are phenomena experienced during a benign LSD trip. The version shared here is pretty faithful but given that Wobble “wobble.”
I loved this selected re-envisioning of some of The Beatles psychedelic tunes and it was obvious that the songs chosen were treated with care and respect. The musicianship is outstanding and Charlie`s vocal delivery had a soothing, warm inflection or pitch and really drew me into the depth of each and every number shared.
The record is dedicated to Zi Lan’s father: a lifelong Beatles fan, who owned everything they ever released on vinyl. It`s also an acknowledgement of and a tribute to a band who still shape and influence our musical listening over fifty years since they broke up.
Rating 9/10
