{"id":17541,"date":"2021-12-27T05:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-12-27T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/?p=17541"},"modified":"2021-12-23T15:24:01","modified_gmt":"2021-12-23T15:24:01","slug":"jim-bower-life-support-self-release","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/?p=17541","title":{"rendered":"Jim Bower – \u2018Life Support\u2019 (Self Release)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Having recently reviewed the magnificent Scaramanga Six, I was sent a link to the new audio-visual project by Shatner main man, Jim Bower. As the Scara\u2019s Paul Morricone has played with Shatner, it seemed a good idea to explore \u2018Life Support\u2019. Clearly, this has been a labour of love for Bower; ten tracks, each with an accompanying video, one released each month until December 2021. The loose concept is an environmental journey \u201cfrom apathy to activism\u201d. So, not Ramones, then? No, but we have room at RPM to embrace a variety of music, as long the quality is high.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Which it is. For fans of the Scaramanga Six, yes, and anyone with an ear for a tune and a story. Shatner often sounded, to these ears, like a relative of Chris Catalyst of Eureka Machines. And if Chris wrote a concept album, it could sound like this. \u2018When David Bowie Died\u2019 is a case in point, a subject Chris has written about. Things have, indeed, been unsettlingly weird since then.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Sun Will Rise\u2019 seems written from the point of view of a conspiracy theorist; \u201cI\u2019ve got the right to believe what I like\u201d. \u2018Wrong\u2019 is the reply to the keyboard warrior; \u201cI\u2019m sure you found a Facebook group who totally agree with you\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018All You Need Is Time\u2019 laments the time wasted, while trying to provide for the future. The eternal conundrum of work\/play balance? \u201cWe\u2019ll skip through fields, sea air we\u2019ll breathe, on statutory days of leave\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Can Of Worms\u2019 sees the protagonist using silence as a shield, rather than confronting the disturbed ideas of other people. \u2018Life Support\u2019 pleads with their partner to save them, to make life worthwhile; \u201cYou\u2019re my life, so be there, be my health care, hold my hand\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lyrically, not easy listening, but it bears fruit if you\u2019re ready for it. The music is lightly psychedelic in parts, which suits the hypnotic nature of the themes. Half-dreamed, half-remembered? For fans of the aforementioned Scaramanga Six, Chris Catalyst, Mansun\/Paul Draper. A bold, but ultimately satisfying project.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Buy Here<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Author: Martin Chamarette<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Having recently reviewed the magnificent Scaramanga Six, I was sent a link to the new audio-visual project by Shatner main man, Jim Bower. As the Scara\u2019s Paul Morricone has played with Shatner, it seemed a good idea to explore \u2018Life Support\u2019. Clearly, this has been a labour of love for Bower; ten tracks, each with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":17542,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[1787,1800,1818,1710,1681],"class_list":["post-17541","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-review","tag-its-a-revolution","tag-martin-chamarette","tag-new-album","tag-rpm-online","tag-rpmnews1"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17541","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=17541"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17541\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17543,"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17541\/revisions\/17543"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/17542"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=17541"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=17541"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=17541"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}