Thomas J Marchant - How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Cyberspace

Hear The Track Here

Finally, at last, the man decides to come out of the closet. Nope, not THAT closet, merely the fact that Thomas J has apparently shucked off the Antennaheadz guise for good, stepping out under his own name. Still didn't seem to stop me having two separate versions of How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Cyberspace, one by each according to my file list. If you have no farging idea what I am wittering on about allow me to introduce to one of Soundclick's many troubadours, but one of special note. Thomas J started life on Soundclick as an 'experimental' artist and only recently metamorphosed into the folksy hero we now see, and if that isn't out of left field I don't know what is.

Not exactly compatible styles.

I've been a big fan of this change because, whatever you might think about about his individual style, the man knows how to put a song together. How I Learned to etc is a muse on 'a world without wires?' 'When did we become so reliant?' Thomas wonders in a really pleasant (no other way to describe it really) song that was, for me anyway, a bit surprising. Probably as an offshoot of his decision to start playing live gigs, Thomas seemed to have toned up his arrangement skills very nicely indeed, at least if this track is anything to judge by. Mind you, its simplicity itself.

Not much to it at all. A guitar, a kinda bass note drone and that's your lot. Add to that Thomas's quintessentially English vocal and lyrical style and you have a little piece of magic. Less is definitely more in this case because I don't think I've heard Thomas sounding better than he does on this track; a world-weary bone tiredness pours out of every note. Imagine, if you will, a cross between Syd Barrett and Pete Shelley and that's the kind of area Thomas J nails precisely. A bit more laid back than usual, and nothing as immediate as some of his more recent material, this is a track well worth catching up with. Just the thing for a lazy Sunday afternoon.

Thomas J goes mellow...? Highly Recommended Acoustic Rock