You might thing that the precociously talented Oakland, California resident, Greg Ashley, is in danger of spreading himself too thin. Not content with releasing two wonderfully experimental album with his old band, The Mirrors, Ashley has tried his hand at trippy garage rock with his current band, Gris Gris, and released his excellent debut solo album.Whilst his effort with Gris Gris, For The Season, was a snarling psychedelic monster, Medinice F**k Dream is a collection of ten tender, reverb-bathed lamentations.
Many of the songs are sweet addresses to his partner, but to call them 'love letters' would be to miss the point. The word 'fuck' is in the album's title for a reason. Ashley, in deliciously seductive near-whisper, hums stram of consciousness lyrics about drink, drugs and sex over some sleepy Syd Barrett-eque instrumentation on Karen Loves Candy and Legs Coca-Cola.
Sometimes, the results are slightly scatterbrained, see the saccharine I Said "These Are Lonely Day" or the heavily narcotised Deep Deep Down, but never anything less than utterly beguiling. Then, with almost embarrassing ease, he changes tact and plays the almost perfect trucker anthem on Apple Pie And Genocide.
Ashley's current album-a-year work-rate suggests that Medicine Fuck Dream won't be his last solo release, but this acid-folk masterpiece may prove to be his best.
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