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From The Desk Of Chris Stamey: Andy Partridge And Peter Blegvad’s “Gonwards”

ChrisStameyLogoAlthough Chris Stamey is best known as being part of the original dB’s, the legendary jangle-pop combo from Winston Salem, N.C., that sprouted wings when they moved to NYC in the late ’70s, his solo work has always been equally fascinating. Soon after cutting Stands For deciBels and Repercussion, the seminal band’s longplayers tracked in the early ’80s, Stamey pulled up stakes and returned to churning out his own hackle-raising sound. He has resurfaced recently as part of a fertile duo with Peter Holsapple, but it’s albums like his current solo release, Lovesick Blues (Yep Roc), that keep his one-man trip smoldering like a late-October controlled burn in the N.C. tobacco fields while light rain begins to fall. Stamey will guest editing magnetmagazine.com all week. Read our brand new Q&A with him.

AndyPartridgeAndPeterBlegvad

Stamey: Some of you may know renaissance man Peter Blegvad from his solo records or his work with Henry Cow, Slap Happy and the Golden Palominos, or perhaps from his decades-long Imagined/Observed/Remembered series. I trumpeted his Leviathan cartoons last time I was in this guest-editing chair. And he knows his way around the pop song, too; see his guide to making a hit record. And of course you know the accomplished composer, guitarist and rocker Andy Partridge from his thrilling body of work in the last century with the trail-blazing, non-touring English band XTC. The two have collaborated before, in bits and pieces, including Andy’s full-length ’90s-era CD about Peter, Peter Who?, which started as a one-minute promo piece for King Strut And Other Stories and just grew. The great news is that they have made a new record together, Gonwards, which I highly recommend and which includes the smashing video for the song “Sacred Objects.”  It’s as curious as they are, and I think it’s this mutual curiosity that makes them such grand bedfellows. There is always a sense that they each have one eye on a shared pair of binoculars and as much as they have turned its zoom knob, they are still surprised each time by what comes into view. And you will be, too. Upwards and g’onwards, I say!

Video after the jump.