Thirsty’s new mini-album NOMAD
23rd July 2018“Original Quireboys guitarist Guy Bailey is one half of Thirsty, which is completed by Russian poet Irina D. It’s a winning combination, with Bailey’s subtly skillful blues licks and Irina’s intelligent lyrics. With sparkling production by Stones producer Chris Kimsey and plenty of nods to classic 60’s soul, ‘Albatross’ feels like a perfect Sunday morning album. The overall feel is somewhere between Keith Richards’ ‘Talk Is Cheap’ and Lou Reed’s ‘Coney Island Baby’.” (‘Albatross’ album review by Gus Ironside in Vive Le Rock Magazine January 2017).
Thirsty, the essential bluesy arthouse rock ‘n’ roll band founded by guitarist Guy Bailey and Russian poet Irina D, have lined up the release of their alluring new 6 track ‘Nomad’ EP as an exclusive 180 gram 45 rpm vinyl mini-album on Thirsty Music on August 31st.
‘Nomad’, the follow up to the ensemble’s highly acclaimed sophomore album ‘Albatross’, continues Thirsty’s exploration of poetic and unorthodox themes within the framework of the classic three-minute pop song. ‘Nomad’ is the band’s third collaboration with legendary Rolling Stones producer Chris Kimsey, whose unique talents and experience ensured that ‘Nomad’ retains an authentic vinyl sound from start to finish.
Standout tracks include ‘Even Keel’, a catchy slice of Lou Reed pure pop, (the first single to radio), ‘Mercury Rising’, a languid, dark love song exploring the volatility and toxic / poisonous emotions represented by this element, and ‘Albatross (Remix)’, released for the first time on vinyl – and remixed by Kimsey especially for vinyl.
Looking forward to the band’s first vinyl release, Guy Bailey states that “We love the way that the new record looks and how it feels and how its sounds – and the cover art is just amazing. Why vinyl? There is nothing digital about live music – and nobody has digital hearing. So digital is always artificial and something always gets lost in the digital processing. Once you listen to the real thing – you get it immediately”.
The stunning original artwork for both inner and outer sleeves is the fruit of a close collaboration between Thirsty and acclaimed Chilean Artist Pato Bosich, who coproduced music videos with Irina D for ‘Mercury Rising’ and ‘Albatross’, where a fluid live action metamorphosis of Pato’s art is achieved using painstaking stop/go animation.
Pato Bosich is an outstanding contemporary artist whose work has been exhibited around the world including in New York; London; Moscow; Barcelona; Venice; Buenos Aires; and Santiago in his native Chile. Based in London since 2000 he has collaborated on diverse artistic projects with the British Museum and National Gallery. Whilst essentially a contemporary artist, Pato’s work is rooted in the classical traditions of painting. His previous collections bring about an interweaving of underlying themes such as the mythological and symbolic in “Antiquity”; the fragmentation and transvaluation of contemporary society in “Ship of Fools”; and, in his most recent 2018 collection “I Bleed You Levitate Me”, the poetic and alchemical. (For more information, go to www.patobosich.com) Thirsty and Bosich are currently planning a collaborative launch event in London in July, featuring a mix of art, music and video.
Thirsty, whose line-up is completed by fellow Quireboys founder Chris Johnstone on bass and keyboards, plus drummer Simon Hanson (Death In Vegas, Squeeze), released their self-titled debut album, in 2015. ‘Thirsty’ blended high art and underground rock, telling strange slices of real life and true history, such as the chilling account of a botched lobotomy performed on JFK’s wayward sister Rosemary in stand-out track ‘God Bless America’. Brooding, beguiling and evocative, ‘Thirsty’ was an intoxicatingly moreish concoction, which won them much high praise and a continent-spanning cult following.
Thirsty’s second album ‘Albatross’, musically and lyrically woven around themes inspired by literary works by the likes of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, John Bunyan and the Polish author Stanislaw Lem, earned even more acclaim. R2 (Rock‘n’Reel) writer John Atkin raved; “In places, ‘Albatross’ inhabits the same trash-strewn alley as ‘Exile On Main St.’, at others there are echoes of Tom Waits or even Leonard Cohen, and Bailey’s hoarse whisper is the perfect foil to Irina’s noir verses, especially on an exquisite junkshop love song like ‘Shore Of Light’. Thrilling”.
Fireworks’ Duncan Jamieson stated; “At times, it’s like the best Keith Richard album that he never made. ‘Black Hole’ channels the Rolling Stones, whilst ‘Va Banque’ has an organ that is caressed rather than bashed away at. Irina D adds lilting backing vocals across the tracks and she shares the lead on ‘Cosmic Aphrodite’. Her breathless, accentuated vocals brings the late night chanteuse to the track; it’s as if Marlene Dietrich is in the building. Bailey demonstrates expertly how former rock and roll hell-raisers can grow up musically without losing their counter-culture credentials.”
Irina D’s unusual choice of the title ‘Nomad’ is intended in the sense of movement from one place or state to another facilitating freedom for change and transformation; themes which appear throughout the record on songs such as ‘Mercury’ and ‘Albatross’. Mercury is a traditional symbol of alchemical change, whilst the nomadic ‘wandering albatross’, migrating thousands of miles between the sky and the ocean, has always had a mythical resonance.
