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Along The Sun, Cowboy, Devil's Intro, Vampire, Devil's Intro, Alcoholic, The Gift, Starlight, Gone All In One, Ricohet, Turn To Blue, Shake |
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word magazine
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| "Cathead is essentially Tim Phillips, a London-based Canadisn clever clogs who has already composed an orchestra work base on The Master And Margarite and written music and C4's brilliant Shameless ('cos it's the music we really love about those shows, isn't it?).
Not that any of this would be glaringly apparent from Richochet, his debut albulm, which at times sounds like Ryan Adams fronting mid-period U2 and at others (and this is the bad dope) like Billy Corgan fronting Busted. Mostly it's pleasant stuff, heavy on melody and squally atmospherics and, even if it's all a bit '90s, there are some grand moments: 'Along the sun' is lazily euphoric, while 'Turn To Blue' is liltingly lovely. Now, if we can only persuade young Mr Phillips to rethink that god-awful name."
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www.americana-uk.com
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| "Much travelled soundtracking polymath lands first song-based record You listen to this and immediately think that there is a huge talent
behind it - it swoops and it soars, it glitters and promises, it seems so fully formed, it can't fail. After a couple of listens you can begin to unpick some of it: 'Cowboy' is epic Smashing Pumpkins, even the vocals are Corganesque - never mind though, they rarely sounded this good. 'Alcoholic' tries to repeat this success and with its huge riff and chorus, it certainly makes an impact and when he winds up for the big finish he certainly pulls you along with him. More of his own personality shines through on the piano driven 'The Gift' - this is calmer and softer, not so bursting to impress. A heavy throb of a bass line brings in 'Gone All in One' and the guitars are helium fuelled, more Muse than anything else; the vocal moves around the register and it threatens to break out in full nu-prog mode. It is to his credit that things never quite get that far out of hand.
As the initial impression evaporates it leaves the dust of grungy Goth-rock which threatens to blow away in the wind, but for 'Turn to Blue' in which he manages to curb his Corgan enthusiasm and let his voice drift alongside the melody. 'Shake' is similar - it shimmers with melody and with the gymnastic vocals it's all a bit ethereal and groundless and you begin to hanker after the more concise
grunge-lite. An exasperating listen; one moment you think it's going to be outstanding and the next you just want it to end, quickly. After repeated listens I still think that Tim Phillips has a huge talent, I'm just not sure if this is the right way to express it."
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subba culture
Read it here »
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| "Before even talking about the album, time must be spent commenting on just how talented Tim Phillips clearly must be. Indeed, you'll probably have either seen or heard his work without even realizing
it; as well as producing the music for hit Channel 4 series 'Shameless' he also composed the soundtrack for Gael Garcia Bernal film 'The Last Post'. If that wasn't enough, his theatre company has had hit shows in New York and London, and has just been commissioned by the Royal Shakespeare company to develop a production of 'Twelfth Night'. Thus, one gets the impression that Phillips, who played keyboards, guitar and co-produced the album, must be a very busy man.
While such a feat of multi-tasking is clearly impressive, it arguably also perhaps detracts from the album. Title track 'Ricochet' is another exhibition of Phillip's ability, and yet it unfortunately takes several comfortable if slightly mediocre tracks to get there.
An argument clearly exists to suggest that this debut release may have been slightly rushed, especially considering how much Phillips has going on, and it would appear a great pity that tracks such as the title track and 'Turn to Blue' aren't reproduced throughout. Indeed, there would seem a conscious shift from the disappointing Smashing Pumpkin-esque early tracks of the album to the Bob Dylan inspired ballads which follow and perhaps display a more comfortable and settled singer songwriter.
While 'Ricochet' reveals glimpses of excellence, it remains on the whole a rather disappointing album, simply for the reason that it could have been so much better. As the old adage goes, if you are going to do a job, do it properly, though maybe if I were as talented as Phillips I might switch from job to job as readily as he does."
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CATHEAD
Website
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AKA Tim Phillips was born and bred in the clear and mountainous region of Western Canada, where he learned to pick guitar with the local gypsies. He made the decision to move to London to undo what some of good living had done. Tim took his compositions onto the solo circuit and pretty soon CatHead was fully formed. Meanwhile Tim was also busy on a host of other music projects - co-writing the music with Murray Gold for the upcoming series of Channel Four's hit tv series Shameless. He also co-founded and became Co-Artistic Director of Filter Theatre, an experimental music theatre company. Their first show Faster became an huge hit on the fringe, transferring to the Lyric Hammersmith theatre and selling out five weeks in London, ending with a critically acclaimed run in New York City. He has also had commissions as a film composer including a soundtrack for 'The Last Post' (starring Gael Garcia Bernal) which went on to win the Interfilm Berlin Festival and gain a BAFTA-nomination for Best Short Film. And most recently you may have heard Tim singing the track 'Song For Ten' on the new series of Doctor Who.
His debut album, 'Ricochet' is out on Pointy.
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