From Fossilised Cretaceous Seams

Billy Childish is a man who has devoted his life to art and self-expression, created entirely on his own terms. Hes a prolific and acclaimed visual artist, a celebrated poet and novelist, an avid photographer and filmmaker, and the most tireless British rock & roll artist of his time, having released over 130 albums between 1977 and 2024 with his various groups, not counting a multitude of singles and compilation contributions. Childishs best-known music is raw, raucous garage rock paired to lyrics obsessed with pop culture, the classic tropes of rock and blues songwriting, and/or his venomous view of the world around him (and sometimes himself). However, hes also embraced acoustic blues, calypso, girl group sounds, folk, spoken word performance, and even primitivist folk-rock. Compiling a compact but properly inclusive introduction to his music is no simple task, though there have been several attempts in the past. With the publication of To Ease My Troubled Mind: The Authorised Unauthorised History of Billy Childish by Ted Kessler in July 2024, Childish took it upon himself to compile a sampler as a companion to the book, and 2024s From Fossilised Cretaceous Seams: A Short History of his Song and Dance Groups is a guided tour through the mind and music of Billy Childish in 33 short chapters. Childish wisely chose not to try to cram every sort of thing hes committed to vinyl into this collection, but he does seem determined to cover enough ground to show hes more than some guy obsessed with Link Wray and the early Kinks. There are stripped-to-the-frame Beat Era homages ("For She," with thee Milkshakes), no-frills electric blues ("You Gotta Move," with the William Loveday Intention), cool R&B ("Moon of the Popping Trees," with the Guy Hamper Trio), slinky vintage Europop ("I Feel Like Giving," with the Delmonas), bitter social commentary ("Thatchers Children," with the Musicians of the British Empire), and even a dash of inspired silliness ("Davey Crockett," with thee Headcoats). Childish is a proud primitivist, and most of these tracks are lo-fi rock & roll (and related phenomena) recorded with an eye towards spontaneous expression rather than cleanliness, while the lyrics frequently express a baleful view on the devaluation of art and the homogenization of British culture. Childish has purposefully set himself outside of the mainstream of art and music, and the strength of his work has brought him an audience larger and more avid than most of his peers in the U.K. garage scene, largely because theres far more to him than that. From Fossilised Cretaceous Seams: A Short History of his Song and Dance Groups doesnt accomplish the (probably impossible) task of encompassing the width and breadth of Childishs music in one convenient package, but this collection does sum up his world view remarkably well. If he wanted to create an album that would allow beginners to understand what hes about and where his thoughts go, he did an excellent job. ~ Mark Deming