first in the inward & outre psych trilogy
recorded 2004-2005


Locust Music, Chicago, IL issued 'sulphur, glue the star' in 2006 on cd/download.


www.answers.com/topic/sulphur-glue-the-star-2006-album-by-fazzini :

'Presumably, there's an unwritten rule for concept albums that no specific guidelines or directions must be followed, that it's instead more important for the overall themes and emotions of the record to be conveyed. Evidently, Tom Fazzini took at least the first part of the credo to heart for his conceptual Sulphur, Glue The Star, because the album certainly takes a free-form shape as far as indie/folk rock is concerned. Its eerie spoken pieces ( "03," "06," and "08") are nestled between sparse and bizarre acoustic guitar-driven songs that seem just on the verge of actually saying something, like a man standing on a cliff and turning round momentarily with his mouth open right before he leaps, the idea of his words lost in the wind over his head. Fazzini doesn't make the task of understanding his message any easier, be it literally by occasionally obfuscating his vocals with various effects, or more figuratively with his use of vaguely non- sequitur lines ( " Lucien Freud would paint it so well/ with a hundred pound bottle of wine in the dell") or esoteric natural imagery. But he also doesn't seem to necessarily even be trying to explain a certain situation or idea. Rather, Sulphur, Glue The Star is Fazzini's own view of the entire world : the women he's loved, the people who've hurt him, the strange earth around him, the men he knows but has never met. Perhaps what he's actually trying to explore, and get across to his listeners, isn't hidden behind underwater sound effects, maniacal laughter, or ephemeral constructs of ghosts or anemones. Perhaps the point, the "concept," if you will, is what is explicitly stated in the penultimate song "Glare." "She said 'why can't you see/ that everything is connected, even that pin in your knee?" Fazzini sings, and suddenly everything is clear. Sulphur, glue The Star is how he sees it. And if that's not a concept album, it's hard to say what is.' - Marissa Brown, all music guide


Review from Signal to Noise Magazine 20/10/06. US :

'Sometimes a little mystery is a good thing, at the very least, after you've listened to thousands of records it's nice to encounter something that resists instant reduction to a " sounds like .." category. Tom Fazzini, formerly of A Small Good Thing, has managed the rather remarkable stunt of making music that's pretty transparent and basic, yet evades obviousness. He's a capable finger picker who sings with a lilt in his voice that's sometimes highly sardonic, sometimes earnest. He makes judicious use of cheap microphone distortion to create a heard-over-the-phone vibe; samples of ocean waves, a bubbling aquarium, and stray sound effects that alternatively disrupt and underscore the lyrics. Fazzini even prints his words, albeit so eye-punishingly faint that you're not encouraged to look too closely. Even if you do, Fazzini's jumble of highly physical imagery and hazy chronology makes it hard to know what's going on. No matter how hard I scrutinise this record, it gets away like a trout swimming through your fingers. Pleased to be befuddled, I keep grabbing.'
(Bill Meyer)



Music Blogs - Better Living Through MP3. Select Sampling of What's Really Good By Ken Micallef :

'Sulphur, Glue The Star is one of the most refreshing giggles of the year. Fazzini never fails to extract a kernel of nonsensical wisdom from his bong-blown songs. There is no denying Fazzini's obvious debt to 60's psychedelia and its outgrowth of cosmic consciousness in 70's stoner rock.'

DUSTED, May 19, 2006 By Emerson Dameron:

'Sulphur, Glue The Star' swirls a wide collection of sounds around two soft-spoken focal points: an acoustic guitar and an unmistakably British lead vocal. Owing to the top shelf production, the flourishes (a thumb piano, a tibetan bowl, a hair clipper, bubbles) contribute depth rather than clutter. Some tracks (particularly "Duplex," a disturbing gorgeous ode to sea life that could be a weird, weird children's song) are so delicate, intense, and generally un-pop that they border on theatre. But there's always a song at the center, sung with something between quiet despair and quiet determination.
No one's going to mistake Tom Fazzini for a strict comedy act, not with the agonized contempt and lacerating confusion at his lyrical heart. "Don't shag all my friends, will you," he beseeches someone in the exquisite ballad 'Urge' "..cause those devils just just take it anymore." This memo's recipient also fucks the narrator's enemies, the vicar, and "the people's poet," who has " cursed your name in his slim books/that breed upon the shelves in every city/ and anyway he's lost his looks. " If you get on Fazzini's bad side, you can expect to at least to be shit-talked articulately. Or, as in "Glare," you can expect it to turn into a hauntingly rendered seaside slap-fight. (Of late, few lyricists have brought charged sex and light cruelty into such beautiful harmony.)
Maybe he is a comedy act, in a broad sense. And comedy is, if nothing else, a broad art.
At 30 minutes, 'Sulphur, Glue the Star' hardly jeopardizes its welcome. It's one of those records that's over before it's quite established itself. It consists of six proper tracks, an instrumental callback to "Urge" and three skits (or i guess "interludes.") On the more resolute of these, David Coxon relates a second-hand account of drug-soaked metaphysicality. It's reminiscent of "The Air Itself" by Sunburned Hand Of The Man", although it's a lot easier (that is, possible) to follow.'

www.cyclicdefrost.com/blog/?p=443 Published by Max Schaefer at May 30, 2006 in Reviews Issue 14 :

'Just as there are never crests without troughs, the knotty, gnarled folk music of Tom Fazzini exhibits the fact that oppressing elements are at the same time inseparable. Not only do the outlandish field recordings of creaking floorboards and shrill laughter mesh with the sombre finger-picked guitar passages, but they do so in a personal, significant manner, conveying a sincere concern for the ardent assemblage of parts. The result is a sonic patchwork in the truest sense of the word: one is offered very specific, seemingly insignificant fragments of song, slivers of spiked noise, flashes of growling drones, glimmers ofmelodic modesty. The unabashed mellowness of the guitar and the hushed tone of Fazzini's voice could easily have been left to their own devices, but Fazzini sees to it that these elements tread softly through spangled textures, the light gurgle of water, and a pasture of quickly gliding strings. In doing so, he has forged an album that is elusive in its bassic simplicity, and endearing in its quaintness.
Everywhere, a strong spatial domain is erected. Although the guitar sometimes tweaks out in feedback, often it is content to craft smooth, yet resonant melodies. In like manner though it reaches now and again for a strained falsetto, Fazzini's voice is generally a scratchy, lazy murmur. In this way, by placing these two largely static elements against a background that is constantly changing, the effect is that one feels a passenger whirling throgh space, awestruck by unfolding details that change color, grow dimmer, and die away This ride is kept from inducing nausea by the fact that, underneath all of the percolating details, these are fundamentally humble pop songs.
As the album fades out of sight, though these songs prove a trifle too fleeting insofar as they fail to leave a firm, lasting impression. Notably, the field recordings of old English gentlemen ruminating on their lives, though successful in creating a mood of some substance, sometimes outweighs other aspects whose presence might have enabled one to draw more sap from these subtly defined structures.' (Max Schaefer, Cyclic Defrost Magazine.)


Terrascope Online Reviews for June 2006 :

Managing to squeeze ten songs into 30 minutes, this is an enchanting and intriguing release that is full of delicate songs that have the feel of fairy tales, the gentle melodies and sounds hiding a bitter darkness in the lyrics although this atmosphere is softened with humour and the possibility of happy endings.
Opening track "Wooky" is a twisted ghost story full of treated vocals and an insistent guitar riff sounding like a hyperactive Kevin Ayers, whilst "Zone" is filled with a wistful ache that gives the song a sadness which is difficult to shake off. The sound of bubbles runs through "Duplex" giving the song a relaxed feel and complimenting the wonderful child-like surrealism of the lyrics, before strings and vocals give the whole thing an almost disneyesque feel, although old Walt would not approve.
A sinister atmosphere pervades "Dell," the guitar moving from a jazzy riff through to discordant noise and chaos, giving the song a sense of dynamics that really works. In fact, it is the details in this record that make it so successful, the sound in the background, the spoken sample, the hiss and crackle all add to the atmosphere especially on "06" which is a very unsettling tale that will make the listener look over their shoulder more than once.
At almost six minutes, "Glare" is the longest track on the album and has a more structured feel to it, the sounds of the sea filling the spaces behind as the guitar and voice spin their tale of a relationship on the beach. Finally "Urge" (Reprise) closes the album in a calming and relaxed fashion , being an instrumental version of a song that appeared earlier, the guitar and recorders gently fading to leave just memories of the strange and magical world we have jest visited. The first time I played this I had to play it again as soon as it had finished, so strongly did I connect with it. I hope it weaves the same magic on you.
(Simon Lewis.)


From the tastyfanzine.com site :

What a delightful album. Fazzini has no regard for curent trends, rules or creative boundaries. This solo musician (formerly one-third of A Small Good Thing) has filled an album full of sounds of the absurd. whether it be haunting stories of ghost sightings in a Madrid hotel room, or the lysergic - soaked sounds of water bubbling, swooshing and streaming out of the speakers, Fazzini has an eye for the surreal and he delivers his psychedelic folk album, Sulphur, glue The Star with devastating aplomb. This is a folk album, but Fazzini certainly doesn't adopt the cider approach (if you don't know what I mean by that, spend a bank holiday weekend at the height of summer, then you will.) No siree, Fazzini sings macabre lyrics to a tender acoustic guitar that go along the lines of 'down in the dell the smell of rotting flesh lingers and ' I hit her hard and fell in the sand, laughing, her pencil neck to the sky.'
There are three tracks on this album that are simple dicta-phone recorded spoken word pieces. These all bring to mind Lovecraft or Algernon Blackwood narratives. They are welcome surprises that make this album a thoroughly memorable experience.'
(Alex Clark.)

POP MATTERS :

'Tom Fazzini likes the noises that come between the noises that usually make up music. He likes pauses and abrupt silences and, in "Wooky, "he likes to amplify the choppy squeaks that his plectrum makes when it rubs along the guitar string between notes. In "Duplex" he makes a bubbling noise. It sounds as if he's stuck a straw into a bowl of water. When he sings on "Glare," his voice is faint, strained, anxious, and vehement. "Damn your vertical hair, " he sings. "Damn your twin set and pearls." The album starts with sampled speech from an elderly man credited only as Mr Boko. "All I know is that when we got married, this is the kind of house we lived in," says Mr Boko in a crinkly, rusty, British voice."I don't know." Sulphur, Glue The Star is filled with connections between unexpected things, as if the album is saying "You know that songs don't only have to be about instruments and singing. See, they can be about bubbling and Mr Boko as well." I like it. '
(Deanne Sole)


INDIE WORKSHOP.COM :

Is that water, dripping in through the roof? Digitally percolating water maybe? These drips and drops of water are just one of the many peripheral sounds permeating the songs on this album. The ten tracks here form a loose story of some sorts, like a surreal radio play maybe. Eerie instrumentals and spoken interludes surround a handful of strange ballads often with distant or treated vocals. Of course, it is a love story. Or maybe a lust story. Most of the lyrics are actually more dreamlike, filled with images of hazy longing, unrequited feelings, and jealousy amongst others.
He has a comforting, slightly high pitched voice, this Fazzini. The lyrics here are strange, they'd be dark if they weren't presented so warmly, delivered over acoustic guitar. Of all the lyrics, the ones to "Glare" are the most dreamlike. Faint, abstract, vaguely violent but lush, and finally beaming. All very sparce vocal and guitar joined only by a Fender Rhodes organ. Although the music progresses smoothly, the whole affair has a disjointed feel, where everything around you feels just a little bit out of place. Scratchy, shadowy-sounding spoken word parts weave stories within the story. One tale, in part about someone finding a stranger in their room at the hotel Madrid, could be a William Burroughs snippet, the stranger intoning " It is permitted... it's all in the contract," while a phone rings in the background before the whole thing drifts away.
It's a brief affair and I keep the player on repeat. The head-scratching cycle becomes all the more odd once you've listened to it three or more times in a row. You lose track of which part of the album you're at. The hearty, full-gut laugh that comes at the end of "Duplex" ceases to be mid-album and turns into an opening salvo that then pulls us into "Dell." a creepy mind-scramble of a number. The album, which itself feels like a tale of disorientation, becomes disorientating itself and really draws one in. I wasn't sold at first, but its bleak fantasies and brevity serves this album quite well. There are enough textures and dented tales here to merit repeat listens. In fact, I think it's essential to glean the true charm of the album.'
(Adam Richards| 2006-03-28)