Ask any musician for his influences and you'll get answers like The Beatles, David Bowie or John Lee Hooker. Paul Roland, I suspect, would come up with names like Edgar Allan Poe, HP Lovecraft, Jules Verne or Robert Louis Stevenson. His songs are steeped in mystery and gothic horror tales and populated by Victorian villains and adventurers. Often pegged as folk or neo-psychedelia, his music is sui generis: Sure, there's a strong 60's aura and echoes of Donovan, Roy Harper and Syd Barrett but also elements of Gothic, Progressive, New Wave, New Age and even Garage or Hard Rock. On stage they're mostly performed in a stripped-down acoustic manner without losing any of their ambience but studio versions may feature woodwind and string arrangements or electric guitars and loud drums. In the end it probably depends on the musicians accompanying him or the available budget but, regardless the packaging, it's the vocals and lyrics that manage to transport you to Roland's fantasy world. Each song is a visual mini-story ready to be painted on a canvas or expanded into a novel or a B-movie. Not surprising, since Roland is also renowned as a writer, having written a staggering 40 books on the subject of mysticism, crime and the occult - something I only found out when I checked his wikipedia page earlier today. Funnily enough my girlfriend, who wrote her PhD thesis on criminal profiling, only knew him from his true crime books but was unaware of his musical career.
"House Of Dark Shadows" collects early EP tracks and portions of his rare Werewolf of London (1980) and Burnt Orchids (1985) albums. As overview of Roland's work it's since been surpassed by other, more extensive, compilations but it remains a great collection of songs and makes for a good introduction to his style which hasn't changed much in the last 25 years. "Blades Of Battenburg" opens the album with some ominous organ, before setting in a classic rock sound, with a harpsichord solo for period effect. The lyrics are a typical example of Roland's style of verse: "Through the iron gates a carriage rolls/To the house, a mansion old/We are the blades of Battenburg/Downstairs our whispers are faintly heard...The halls are white, their shroud is cold/The vaults are sealed, their tales untold/Beneath a portrait of a brave young man/An old woman still in her bridal gown". "Burnt Orchids" is a dreamy acid folk ballad with orchestral backing while "Werewolves Of London" (no relation to the same-named Warren Zevon song) is a horror rocker with dramatic strings and saxophone set in Victorian London. "Lon Chaney" is his tribute to the mysterious star of the silent movies who became known as the man with a thousand faces. He'd probably make the ideal interpreter for Roland's gallery of rogues presented in the next songs: "Dr. Strange", "The Puppet Master" and "Captain Blood". "Death Or Glory" is an anti-war new wave rocker and "Cairo" is an acoustic folk song with a suitably snaky Arabic melody which paints a romanticized picture of a decadent Oriental metropolis in the 1920's. "Green Glass Violins" is an orchestral ballad while "Flying Ace" is closer to country. "Ghost Ships" is an atmospheric song with...ghostly keyboards which reads like a poem by Edgar Allan Poe: "Looming through the fog glides the Ghost ship/ Rotting from crows nest to keel/ Not a soul was seen to steer her/Save a corpse lashed to the wheel". "Madelaine" is another of his eccentric characters ("as each year grows older, she grows more quietly insane"), brought to life with the help of a string quartet and kindred spirit Robyn Hitchcock. My CD version of the album is a 1991 reissue on the French New Rose label, containing extra tracks "Berlin" (an acoustic ballad praising the liberal and cosmopolitan air of that city in the 20's), live radio versions of the country-ish "Graveyard Train" and "Public Enemy", covers of Marc Bolan's "Hot George" and Buddy Holly's "Peggy Sue Got Married" and the bluesy "Jack Daniels". Like I said earlier, Paul Roland is one of a kind and his songs open a door into his fairytale world. Step right in...
***** for Blades Of Battenburg, Burnt Orchids, Werewolves Of London, Cairo, Madelaine, Berlin
**** for Lon Chaney, The Puppet Master, Captain Blood, Death Or Glory, Green Glass Violins, Flying Ace Ghost Ships, Graveyard Train
*** for Dr. Strange, Public Enemy, Hot George, Peggy Sue Got Married
** for Jack Daniels
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