Misty’s Big Adventure -‘The Family Amusement Centre.’ (A Village Green For The Big Society Records)

Birmingham eight piece Misty’s Big Adventure have been around since 2004, and this is their fourth album. At one stage they were signed to Edinburgh’s SL Records, who also gave us the likes of ballboy, Saint Jude’s Infirmary and Withered Hand, amongst others. There’s no doubt that there are a lot of very clever ideas going on here and on the records in general (and the legendary John Peel was described mainman Grandmaster Gareth as the ‘new God.’)

Not only that, but album track ‘General Condusion’ features none other than Sir Patrick Moore (which is pretty cool, though I personally feel that Bjork trumped them by getting David Attnborough on her latest album). There’s twelve songs here, most of which are pretty good – the problem is that this album is a bit like the sonic equivalent of a rich fruit cake. It’s lovely in pieces, but taking the entire piece in one go is just overload and a bit much to cope with. And sometimes those clever ideas that I mentioned in the last paragraph seem like they need to be reigned in just a little bit.

However, given the strength of what’s on display here, it is worth persevering with. Whether this might have worked better as a series of EPs is a moot point, and there’s a lot of display to enjoy here.

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The Family Amusement Centre is out on December 5 on A Village Green For The Big Society Records