Blue House - Gobstopper (2019)

Centred round the songs of principal writer James Howard, Gobstopper is the compelling and cinematic result of two years’ work with Ursula Russell (who penned two tracks), Dimitrios Ntontis (Dimi the Greek), legendary producer Capitol K, and a host of other beautiful characters. Recorded at London’s vital Total Refreshment Studio, every track exquisitely delivered with layers of harmony and instrumentation. The cover art is painted by London artist, Phillip Reeves, taking Mingus’ The Clown as its starting point.

Gobstopper represents an expansion of sound and a widening of subject: it is an album sung from inside the gluttonised belly of up-for-grabs capitalist Britain, swallowing up whatever is in its way: a jukebox on the coast, “see-through wheels on a see-through motorway”, Soho square policemen and silent discos. The record roams like a child on a sugar high turning over stones, sometimes finding compassion, sometimes the weird and beautiful, and sometimes just woodlice. Gobstopper narrates the poetic shift: observation and tellings on the experience, emotion when our gaze turns to that curious realm that exists between the day to day living, common need and the conditioned madness of the island of Great Britain.