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Saturday 13 August 2022

Mark & The Clouds - Live At The Betsey Trotwood


We don't generally cover too many Live albums on I Don't Hear A Single. It's just a matter of available time really, so we save what we do cover to the occasional Live Sessions format. But we make an exception with Mark And The Clouds, partly due to the lack of being able to watch much over the past couple of years.

But mainly because these three are one of the best Psych Pop Power Trios and their last album, Waves, impressed us so much that it was in the IDHAS Best Of Year. What Waves did was introduce a much deeper side to the band. You can read the review here



The variance on Waves is fully demonstrated in the Live setting. 8 of the 9 Tracks are from that album and underline the strength of the release. They also fully reveal what a fine guitarist Marco Magnani is and how well the Trio click.

No One Makes A Sound goes into Cream territory and You Wanna Put Me Down is great sweaty UK Beat.  Waves almost becomes Lindisfarne and In The Big Crowd is great Pop Rock with a twang. The non Waves song is a fine cover of All Or Nothing sung by Bassist John O'Sullivan.



The stand out is the Psych Pop of You And Me In Space, a fine opener. The main difference here is that without the likes of the studio album's Brass arrangements etc, the songs sound more earthy, a little bit different and translate beautifully to the live show,

My one regret is that the magnificent Psych of Somebody Else isn't present. It is a mind blowing affair and I urge you to listen to it on the Waves album which is also on Bandcamp/ However, Mark And The Clouds underline how gripping the Power Trio format can be when it concentrates on the songs, not the technical ability.



You can listen to and buy the album here.


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