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Album:Slim Westerns

Artist: A Small, Good Thing

Label: Soleilmoon Recordings

Catalogue number: SOL 23 CD

UK group A Small Good Thing is the brainchild of Andrew Hulme, better known as the driving force behind seminal tribal ambience group O Yuki Conjugate, whose Peyote and Undercurrents albums are classics of the genre. Slim Westerns represents a directional, and inspirational change for Hulme, whose customary preoccupation with tribal rhythms is here superceded by a kind of pulp fiction-inspired, and occasionally almost quirky ambient ode to the American "wild west".

Opening to the crisp, clear sounds of a kind-of laid-back, twangy, Ry Cooder-ish steel-stringed guitar piece, overlaid with the thick electro-atmospherics that have long been the hallmark of O Yuki Conjugate recordings, Slim Westerns makes an immediate impression; it is an impression of wide open spaces, shimmering, heat-haze crazed horizons, and - you guessed it - big men in Stetsons and spurs who shoot straight and ride tall in the saddle!

The curious and original thing about this album is its evocation of the "wild west" as a memory of too many rainy Saturday afternoon B-Grade serials at the Bognor Palladium, or any of its incarnations elsewhere in middle Britain. As such Slim Westerns betrays the cold, northerly aspect of its European heritage, and in so doing provides an interesting comment on the near-universal permeation of American cultural iconography in the second half of the Twentieth Century. The album is an eccentric and thoroughly overblown parody of its subject (witnessed by track titles such as: Twice as Evil as You, Hole in the Heart, Gunsmoke and Jane Russell), yet at the same time its half-out-of-tune saloon bar piano feel and dreamy Harold Budd-inspired resonant spaces lend it a listenability born of inspiration rather than derivation.

Somewhere South of Here is the recording's standout piece, locating spoken word samples of delerious religious fervour in a (spiritually?) empty ambient landscape, and throwing in undertones of implicit violence and madness for good measure; it is a piece which veritably glistens in the noonday sun whilst hiding a heart as black as coal - the perfect sonic image of the fatally flawed, simplistic duality which lies at the the centre of the "wild west" myth.

Opinion on "Pink and Purple World of Dishonesty" album 

Subject:      Re: A Small, Good Thing  ...and.... SFT
From:         zak@azstarnet.com.nospam! (Z)
Date:         1997/04/14
Newsgroups:   rec.music.ambient

>: > One CD I got was the new album by A Small, Good Thing.  It's called
>: > "Pink and Purple World of Dishonesty" 

>       So what's the new SGT album sound like?  Anything like Slim
>       Westerns?  I liked that one but Cool Cool Water was lame by
>       comparison.  Thoughts?

Yeah, what I heard of Cool Cool Water sounded like somebody trying to
do dance remixes of Slim Westerns -- cheesy.

The new Small Good Thing album goes in a different stylistic direction
than Slim Westerns.  Whereas Slim Westerns evokes a western feel
(obviously), The Pink and Purple World of Dishonesty evokes a film
noir, urban jazz feel.  There's a lot of loungy/jazzy stuff going on
here:  echoey piano, sad trumpet, that sort of thing.  The mix of
styles and instruments is much more varied than on Slim Westerns, but
all the tracks hold together and seem better when listened to as a
whole than when listened to individually (though they're good that
way, too).  I recommend it -- I think if you liked Slim Westerns,
you're highly likely to like this.





Review on album "Block" from Ink Nineteen magazine, March 1998

Artist: A Small, Good Thing

Album: Block

Label: Leaf Recordings



I first discovered A Small Good Thing in 1995, while visiting Phoenix for the first time,
in a huge CD store under the genre heading of "spaghetti western ambient." That perfectly
describes their first CD, Slim Westerns. Since then, this quirky offshoot band (comprised
of several members of O Yuki Conjugate) have released an EP and two more full length CDs.
Their sound has changed though from release to release, making them a joy to listen to, but
also something of a confusing conundrum to pin down in terms of genre. This is probably a
good thing, and most likely a concerted effort on the members parts. Block incorporates many
styles, ranging from drum-n-bass, to ambient, to jazz with a nice helping of Twin Peaks-type
atmosphere. Just when you feel you may've been lulled into what to expect -- SORRY! We're
changing gears completely. To give you some idea of what's being played here, check out the
credit listings in terms of instruments: mouth organ, pots & pans, short wave, violin, vibes,
piano, whistles, guitar, drums, Olivetti, love scenes, French, Dictaphone, radio, and trumpets.
There are even at least two songs that will make you check this disc on every CD player you
own to make sure it is not skipping. (It's not... trust me). This list also perfectly describes
Block. It's wonderfully freaky, all over the-place kind of spaghetti western, ambient noir.




                                                                   --Christopher Juul
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