Adam Franklin is a name known to many as the singer, guitarist and main songwriter in Swervedriver, who from 1990 onwards bought you timeless and classic tunes like Son of Mustang Ford, Last Train to Satansville, Duel, Rave Down, Never Lose that Feeling, The Birds.. the list goes on and on. In many ways they would, along with label-mates on the forward-thinking and adventurous Creation label, come to embody a new British psych/shoegaze/rock/pop genre.
Exhausted and disillusioned with everything at the end of an Australian tour in late 1998 however, they dissolved, went home to the UK and moved out of their studio space for an extended hiatus. Adam quickly assembled another musical project in the form of Toshack Highway, relocated to the US and started releasing albums and EPs in 2000. Constantly shifting genres and rearranging styles, his new projects were at first more electronic after he abandoned the standard electric guitar/effects pedals/amps he’d been famous for.
Recording for a second full length album started as early as 2004 but there was no rush to release it and consequently the album, still unnamed, took three years to finish. Returning somewhat to the electric guitar and effects pedals band format, this was clearly not a Toshack Highway album and since Adam had been playing shows as “Adam Franklin”, by the time the album was released in 2007 the name of the artist on the front was Adam Franklin and the record was called Bolts of Melody – later to also become his band’s name as well as the name of a song on the second AF album.
Bolts of Melody came out at the height of digital releases when vinyl was considered archaic and out of date and so the record was never mastered for or pressed onto that beautiful black (or coloured) substance that so richly reproduces sound with all its nuances and depth. And so, for the first time, here it is in its full analogue glory.
Out January 2015. Presale on limited edition 180 gram splatter version from Dec 2nd.
http://tym-records.com/
http://www.adamfranklin.com/
http://adamfranklin.bandcamp.com/