In what is both rapidly and very slowly becoming the longest period of ‘release’ for any album in history, Mojo magazine has this month printed a review of Paul Vickers and the Leg’s album The Greengrocer, recorded at Pumpkinfield.

*** MOJO

Former Dawn of the Replicants man’s winningly odd folk-prog sprawl

Like all his work since his tenure as singer with lo-fi deviants Dawn Of The Replicants, there’s a dark comedy coursing beneath Paul Vickers’ third album with The Leg – and a lot audible on the surface as well – but this tale of curious shopkeepery is decidedly more League of Gentlemen than Open All Hours. Backed by a cast including King Creosote and regular sideman Pete Harvey, The Greengrocer delivers an idiosyncratic fusion of heavy jazz bustle, haunted pop sketches and bristling avant-folk, while Vickers’ vocals have only grown deeper and more twisted with the years. On My Trifle, he growls a peculiar blues as strings and woodwind scythe behind him, like Beefheart performing to a medieval court, while the roilin riot of Polynesian Snuff suggests fevered Foxtrot-era Genesis. And hearteningly, the banjo-driven rumble of Horns And Anvils finds Vickers’ gift for lilting, left-handed pop oddness intact and thriving.

Get in touch to order it direct from Pumpkinfield, or visit our Bandcamp page to secure a copy of this vinyl-only release. It’s a great big black circle of lovely.