Released October 23rd

Country Gentleman Records

At last, the great hibernation is over.  Since the release of "SK1" Simple Kid aka Ciaran McFeely took some time away from the dat machine and acoustic and took up a position in a local video store.  After overdosing on classic 80's flicks it was decided that he'd dust off the 8 track for bash at "SK2" and thankfully he liked what he heard.

Those of you familiar with Simple Kid's work will know that he's not really that bothered about production or fine tuning of anything really, but tunes with this amount of character and addiction are best left as they are. 

"SK2" is a simply crafted offering of man and his machines.  Although the follow

Up doesn't seem to be as electronic as "SK1" the "bare bones" feeling of "2" is a real testament to all things done simply. Ten tracks written quickly and put on to c60 cassette tapes don’t usually sound this good. Even songs that had been created whilst in the studio somehow made they're way back to Simple Kid's house and put back through the 8 track. "Because Simp had grown so found of his old cassette sound by now....Iestyn tolerated this "art" like a gentleman". Iestyn Polson, Simple Kid's  brother Alz and some of his mates all played parts in the making of 2.

A drunken beat looped with banjos and slide guitar make the album opener "Lil King Kong" a perfect introduction to an album with jokes, real life observations and most importantly "The self-help book". "If you get drunk tonight/your gonna fall down" "If you eat too many sweets/your teeth will turn brown", "If you throw a boomerang it's gonna come back" "If you eat too much pie/your gonna be fat", he's right as well. Just when you thought this record couldn't get any simpler we're clawed by "The Domestic Cat". You often hear, "thats the life isn't it", when referring to the family pet still sleeping off the tit bits from a Sunday evening in, as the average man leaves for a days work. Well this is a song all about it. Dropped notes on a one take guitar tune and the simplest on the record. "Don't want no lover or troubles like that/just wanna stay at home like an ol domestic cat".

"Serotonin" along with "Mommy n Daddy" see's SK dust off channel 5 to 8 of the 8 track with the introduction of some anthemic backing vocals, strings and electronic bass lines that'll leave your speakers wishing you'd put this record back on the shelf and ignored it like an old school bully. "Love's an enigma (pt II)" is a continuation from a track off 1 and acts a much welcomed reminder of Simple Kids debut, out of tune synths and howling banjo's. I'll let you paint your own picture but if you do buy this cd the back page will give you a pretty good idea.

by Neil