For their last album, 2015’s Great Big Flamingo Burning Moon, the Wave Pictures (born: Leicestershire, live: London) collaborated with punk hero Billy Childish and recorded on vintage analogue equipment. This time around, they’ve gone one step more primitive. Armed with acoustic instruments, the prolific indie trio – fronted by Jonathan Richman acolyte Dave Tattersall – convened in an east London studio and shared one microphone. No mixing, no nothing; the record is vinyl-only. But the Wave Pictures are not knock-kneed DIY amateurs. A blues-like Memphis Slim in Paris – or the elegantly dour ballad The Pharmacy Cross – are fully realised songs, with wide-ranging references. Disarmingly great guitar solos complete a picture of a band who aren’t as appreciated as they deserve to be.
