THE SILENT BLUE’S 1990 Tune In LP, a pre-RADIOHEAD NIGEL GODRICH production!

TRACK LISTING: A LONG WAY FROM HOME
A MIND (NOT HER OWN)
*TELEPHONE*
SAME OLD LIES
COMING INTO LOS ANGELES
GIVE IT AWAY

Personnel:MARKUS HOLLER-Lead Guitar & Lead/Backing vocals
GRAHAM ARMFIELD- Rhythm guitar
Dave Martyn – Bass
Kevin Moore-Drums
Produced by Markus Holler and (*) Nigel Godrich

DAVE CAVANAGH in SELECT magazine, issue 1, July 1990:
“Pick up a 12-string these days and just watch those sneaky Byrds putdowns from in the corners of cynical mouths.But it’s a fair point in a lot of cases, and here’s one band who would certainly welcome the comparison. The SILENT BLUE are a bunch of Londoners led by one Markus Holler, formerly of the FORTUNATE SONS, the band formed by ROBIN WILLS of THE BARRACUDAS in the mid-80s. Holler writes, sings, plays some good slide guitar and is clearly a student of all things Byrdsian. Good start. This mini-album, THE SILENT BLUE’s first recording, is a six song statement of extreme fondness for sparkling melodies, punchy choruses and those12-string groove machines outlined above. Holler, a man who not only looks like but occasionally sounds like the late GRAM PARSONS sets his songs in a world of emotional treachery and girls who are too exciting by half (‘A mind not her own’). It’s all perky, well arranged stuff with guitars all over the place and a heady nostalgic air. For a cover version they reiterate their appreciation of the glorious past with their choice of ARLO GUTHRIE’S ‘COMING INTO LOS ANGELES’, although it’s interesting to note that the once-daring dope references of Guthrie’s original now sound outrageously dated. THE SILENT BLUE, though, can go straight in the box marked “promising”.