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Rhinoceros

by Coley Park

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  • Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album

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  • Streaming + Download

    Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    Purchasable with gift card

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1.
whatever you say you should write it down because it's never the same way twice with relative ease i could disappear but i feel your eyes at mine hip hip hooray i'm a friend today could you use a helping hand to fall away is such a twisted line as i miss you 10 feet away oh, all you say is such a beautiful array i was woken by your sunny dream but the truth can sometimes hide in your pale pale eyes hunts on in your eyes how i long to walk within these streets that you designed i let a preyer turn to hate why didn't i laugh that time hey it's alright to say that you are tired did you leave your keys behind? the truth can sometimes hide in your pale pale eyes hunts on in your eyes and if i wasn't responding to all that you say sometimes your words like stones can just be thrown away at least pretend that your listening i've seen that look once before hunted until your eyes can see no more.
2.
Quiet Lanes 03:07
3.
4.
Thirsty Dogs 04:16
5.
6.
7.
Devils Tree 05:47
8.
9.
10.
11.
Of All Faces 03:49
12.

about

Rhinoceros was recorded in an old tiny wooden bungalow where Holton lived with his young family. Although an expansive album the songs were rehearsed and recorded live straight to half inch tape, in the oak floored hall like living-room, during the first week. The band then finished and mixed the LP in a cabin outhouse called the Oaki Room over the next six months. All these buildings were sadly destroyed in 2018.
Coley Park were 100% analogue wether recording on 4 track, at their friend Neil Halstead's studio or their own 16 track machine used here. They wrote hundreds of songs and recorded 99% of them. Rhinoceros was there last completed recording to date.

Here is what some press made it-
Coley Park are purveyors of jangly indie-pop with a country twang and a psychedelic twist. For this, their third album, they’ve come up with an understated gem, their beguiling naivety on tracks such as ‘Said And Done’ coming across like Nick Drake fronting The Pastels. “We’re so peripheral right now”, they lament on closer ‘Of All Faces’ – if this was a just world they wouldn’t be." –9/10 NME

"And the living is easy... As we travail from the wettest June in the history of wetness into a (hopefully) sun-drenched mid-summer, you can but hope that there is still enough of the season's more expected weather to come in order to give Coley Park's debut album the appropriate context, the right environment to be blasted into from windows both car and home. This one of those albums without which, summer never seems quite complete. Whilst Coley Park have been laden with a lot of the current buzz-labels (nu-psych, alt.country, even -gasp- indie), you only need to file this record under labels like joyous, uplifting, dreamy, hazy, winsome, soulful, melodic. There are snatches of all the best 60's pop and psychedelic melodies in here, brass/keyboard sections infused with the spirit of 'Soul Rebels' era Dexy's (thankfully rather than Britpop-era Menswear, for example), sparse, lo-fi arrangements in places, but never allowing one of these to dominate. Rhinoceros comes across as a simple record - and that's not to damn it with faint praise - its just uncomplicated, it grabs you right from its opening, and doesn't give you much reason to want to get away. Opener Hip Hip Hooray is a lucky beast indeed, laden with three irresistible hooks in the one song, Sally Cinnanmon-era Roses melodic charm viewed through a skewed hallucinogenic veneer. It's also beautifully out of step with much of what passes as 'modern indie', basically as it has character rather than persona, substance rather than style. Quiet Lanes follows the opening template, light acoustic guitars, picked electrics behind, woozy effects enveloping the far reaches of the mix, but then adds in the brass to move beyond just another haze-fest. I Never Believed A Word You Said opens with the brass and moves us into more driven territory, adding a welcome change of pace - it's never enough to drench your sound in a sleepy ether and hope it carries across ten tracks, and here the beauty and playful joy of that sound is emphasised by these bursts of energy, rather than dragging the whole down into a repetitive mess. Similarly, Always In Love which mixes infectious jangle-pop with a forlorn guitar rasp and keyboard / string line, and Thirsty Dogs with its slower build up, and less treatment on the vocals, shift the dynamic of the record enough to keep it all interesting, keep you focussed. Said And Done initially strips things down even more, with banjo to the fore before being joined by a gentle, evocative flute swimming over the rest of the band, whilst Somewhere Somewhere Somewhere intertwines feedback with acoustic and electric strum. This is taken further with subtle electronics and droning guitars added to the mix on Upon This My Word.
Ghosts In The Sun - the noise just moves it off kilter a bit, whereas many bands would try and make a career out of just the first bit. The summer glares through again towards the end of the album, with Of All Faces being based on a wonderfully sunny guitar melody and rippling, florid rythmn section - its like Magical Spring by Ride with the cheese taken off - and as if to just make sure the point is made, we close with May The Sun Shine On You Kindly, although its nothing more than a instrumental oddity to close, so lets keep Of All Faces as the de facto finale. So yes, its psychedelic, its indie, its country, its all these things, but its more. Its a heady brew, all the elements infused, not colliding against each other, and Rhinoceros ultimately adds to the great British tradition of pop alchemy. Let's hope their powers don't wane anytime soon. –Graham Quinn, Twisted Ear

"Effortlessly cool. Hailing from the dreary Reading suburb with which they share their name, you could be forgiven for a Scooby Doo double take once the music starts. This, the third release from Coley Park, is a surprisingly accomplished collection of effortlessly cool psychedelic country sounds; the listener is merely coaxed in with gentle guitars, occasionally easing their way to make room for a subtle banjo. Opener Hip Hip Hooray is one part lullaby to two parts ho-down, while the soulful Thirsty Dogs recalls a more pop-centric Iron & Wine. The standout, Devils Tree, makes a bold trench run for song of the year. Coming over like a slacker alt-country Dinosaur Jr electing to replace sonic feedback with a warm enveloping layer of pedal steel, the touch is deft. While at points there's a feeling that a few rough edges remain, there's no point in pretending otherwise; this really is a record of understated beauty." –4/5 Garry Thomson, Skinny Mag

"With very little effort, they can turn in the prettily pastoral (Said & Done), the freakily garage-psych (I Never Believed A Word You Said) and just about all points in between." 8/10 Rock'n'Reel

"Coley Park boast of melancholic pop potency." Q

"Coley Park isn't all about sunshine and happiness though. Ghosts In The Sun bewitches you from the first beat as sorrowful lyrics mesmerizingly embrace a storytelling role that is both unnerving and yet beautiful, accompanied as has come to be expected by Coley Park's peculiarly unique touch which this time takes the form of a wall of distortion that pierces the song. Engagingly captivation, Rhinoceros in unlike anything else you will hear this year." –11/13 Room 13

"Fuzzy, woozy psychedelia, wigged-out banjos, shimmering steal guitar add lashings of hallucinogenic nostalgia." –5 Uncut

credits

released July 2, 2007

Nick Portnell- Vocals, acoustic guitar, electric guitar.
Kevin Wells- Vocals, electric guitar, acoustic guitar, lap steel, banjo, recorded, jaw harp, bass.
Mark Smith- Bass
Dave Barrow- Drums, percussion, backing vocal.
Nick Holton- Keyboards, Electric Guitar, percussion, banjo, backing vocal, nylon string guitar, harmonica, glockenspiel.

Songs written by Portnell, Holton & Wells
Produced by Coley Park

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