The 'Everything Twice' EP by Reiss Pinder

I doubt if by now anyone could doubt my respect & liking for the music of Reiss Pinder. I've been reporting on his solo work & a number of bands he's been in for at least seven years, he's appeared on no fewer than four volumes of ‘Hot Music Live Presents' and performed at two of our fundraisers for The Tin: both solo (as recently as March) and the very first one as part of the magnificent HEK.

The latter are a band I've tipped for greatness ever since they got together and I stand by that: however his parallel career on his own is picking up momentum & maybe he can experience comparable successes as Rod Stewart did by himself and while he was in The Faces?

And this is not some isolated fancy of mine: when you can attract the support of local musicians (and ‘Hot Music Live Presents' featured artists) of the calibre of Danny Ansell and Superhooch to support you at your launch, as Reiss has for his Saturday 1^st August event at LTB, then you are endorsed by heavy hitters.

His debut EP ‘Everything Twice' will add evidence to my prediction when it comes out tomorrow (Friday). You'll have heard one track already as "By Your Side" came out as a single in January and it's joined by "Started Over Again" plus two versions of the title track: the second one in unplugged mode. Possibly a knowing nod to the title there?

It's of course on Pandora Craig and Sam McNulty's Love + Madness record label again and really excellent value for money given the way he explores each song & revels in what he finds within his own writing: as hopefully some of you heard back in March when he was carrying out live exploration of his solo material.

And they do reward both depth of engagement and repeated listening. Indeed you are really only going to get a fraction of the possibilities by a single listen & even the intimacy of the live versions, while affecting & powerful, isn't the ideal environment for a deep dive into his characteristically poetic lyrics. I've mentioned this countless times before, but Reiss definitely seems to go for this approach with his words: they read well on their own regardless of his accompaniment.

I'm sure any more Dylan comparisons are not too helpful to him, but I suspect as his fame grows, he won't escape them. The long, usually dense clusters of imagery and wordplay also mirror some of Bob's interests, including religion & intensity of human relationships. With these sparser, acoustic songs (compared with HEK arrangements), I can get lost within a Reiss song as I can in say "Desolation Row" or "Tangled Up in Blue".

I suppose that much popular music is be its nature quite ephemeral: it hooks you in with catchy music & phrases anyone can remember & replicate but then is liable to displaced in your head & the heads of the multitude by the next tasty flavour. On the other hand, there are songs which not only stay the course & are playable a year later, ten years later, but which reward repeated listens as you spot new aspects.

These take a little longer to absorb to begin with, you may not be able to carry all the many words in your head accurately, but the emotional sustenance is more satisfying than the light snack of the immediate. Unfortunately mainstream media is confused by such music & generally has a low opinion of its own audience so is a bit more wary of playing it. Similarly covers acts probably rightly fear that their audiences favour songs they can bellow back to as the ale kicks in & so they too won't risk them.

On the other hand, other musicians (see above) & deeper music lovers will understand the merits & not only will the songs last but they can mature over the years. Reiss is definitely in this second category and to be honest, that's why he gets reviewed by the likes of me.

I hasten to add that he's not produced some sort of semi-accessible avant garde EP which excludes more listeners than it invites in. Not at all. Reiss keeps the songs simple & melodic and uses words you'll understand, even if the imagery he paints requires processing. This just draws you deeper into the song and that's no bad thing.

It's brave to challenge your listener even a little, but it pays off in the longer term. It's courageous too to offer two version of the same song so blatantly beside each other, inviting preference. Which is my favourite "Everything Twice"? Well I'm not sure. I change my mind each play. You may too: is that so wrong? One is pretty close to what you'll hear live & the other has slightly different emphases as other elements are added: but they hardly overwhelm nor do they distract.

Interestingly, I saw Reiss labelled as "blues" and "folk" the other day. Which was interesting as personally I would not otherwise have used either term. There has been a massive expansion of something called "Americana" over the last few years and if you also think of the more tedious and derivative end of what's called "folk", both seem often to consist of someone adopting a ludicrous singing accent. Which from the start excludes me from the song (which tends to be cliched and full of tropes anyway) and makes me doubt the existence of much truth within it. Reiss is clearly influenced by the likes of American songwriting and (listen to his playing) Nick Drake type picking. But he ensures the honesty by singing in his own voice and producing material which is both English & contemporary: check out "Started Over Again" which epitomises this approach & could easily be another single.

‘Everything Twice' is class: this is one of our finest local writers & performers and if you get the chance to hear him, I'd be surprised if you didn't appreciate what I'm telling you about him and how accurate you feel my take on his music is.