VIDEO: the accompanying clip for ‘Pica pica’ - a short meditation on our green and pleasant land - can be found at GnomeTube: bit.ly/GnomeTube

1 FOR SORROW, 2 FOR JOY, 3 FOR A GIRL …*

'Pica pica' started off as an instrumental. And it remained that way throughout its life in the soft cage of the warm studio. Early tracks were recorded during down-time between sessions of meat and potatoes rock’n’roll. The guide bird-call sessions were laid down by the animals that kept waking Ben up early, cawing from the big tree outside, but after the neighbours took the chainsaw to that giant the job had to go to the pair outside Rat’s house.

Whilst laying down guitar parts in sessions with Rat, Carl cooked up an ethereal, almost dulcimer sound on one of the tracks. It was starting to sound like English pastoral horror but without the Hammer, so Ben came up with a squelchy, clattery drum loop for when the beats kick in. 'Pica pica' was originally dubbed ‘Back to the Baroque’ but we’re not sure why. Perhaps Rat’s lead electric magpie duties top off a JS Bach-meets-The-Witchfinder-General-at Glasto vibe. In the studio we enjoy tipping out the toy chest, tooting on the horn of plenty … throwing illegal tender down the wishing well, knocking over the poison chalice whilst closing Pandora’s box. As for the birds? More crow-fun can be heard on ‘Wounded Dog’ a song on the forthcoming ‘Red Questions’ EP.

‘Pica pica (Back to the Baroque) was released as a Christmas single on 16 December 2017, Carl's big day.

*‘Magpie’ was a '60s/'70s children's TV series for the cool kids.