Steven Harry Mason here with Liminous (NO LABEL), his new solo record made with the help of assorted guest musicians…we heard from Mason with his 1998 album Solitary Man – Bring Me The Head of a God, from a time when he was in the band Your Icon with Steven Thomas Hooper. Evidently we found his idiosyncratic music rather hard to digest at the time, but even then there was the abiding interest in revisiting English “acid folk” and 1970s progressive rock, still in evidence on today’s item.
There is a certain pastoral charm and whimsy in the overall feel of Liminous, and some of the melodies alight on a not-unpleasant sunlit bank, conveying a balmy vibe. I’m still struggling with Mason’s singing voice, which now sounds even more earnest and heavy-handed as he plods his way through his incomprehensible lyrics, and those ill-fitting melodies delivered with his inelegant phrasing; but even so we have to admit he’s totally immersed in his own world of creation, as evidenced also by the faraway look in the eyes of the fellow on the cover who is collaged together with his brother moths. An image of the owl, another motif popular with pagan folk types, can be found inside the gatefold. What I hear as earnestness may simply be a token of his conviction.
The guest musicians on woodwinds and strings also make Liminous a more palatable proposition, especially on the instrumental sections, evidently drawing inspiration from Shirley Collins records such as Love, Death and The Lady or Anthems in Eden, with their unique and innovative settings by Dolly Collins. Listen to the end of this quirkular album if you want to hear what becomes of the Caterpillar King who “crawls to rightfully receive his crown”. But I feel Mason missed a trick here, and could have capitalised more on the story potential of his moth and caterpillar imagery; the album should start with a chrysalis, reach caterpillar stage in the middle, and finish with a butterfly or moth. (19/12/2023)