Second Chants

Buy the CD: £13.00

Line up: Geoff Mann

Recorded: 1992

Disc 1

  1. Even Song (1) (1:58)
  2. Shut In The Keep (3:35)
  3. Sight Sea (instrumental) (5:33)
  4. Homeless (1:36)
  5. Tomorrow Today (6:05)
  6. Options & Opinions (instrumental) (4:27)
  7. Yes (5:36)
  8. Apathetic & Here, I... (2:53)
  9. Ooze (3:38)
  10. Where Are You Bound? (9:13)
  11. Helping Hand (0:56)
  12. Midnight (0:47)
  13. A Letter In A Hole In A Tree (1:19)
  14. Small Hours Walk, Small Hours Talk (instrumental) (5:21)
  15. Even Song (2) (8:13)
  16. Homeless (demo) (1:42)
  17. Apathetic & Here, I (demo) (2:22)
  18. Yes (outtake 1) (2:51)
  19. Yes (outtake 2) (1:28)
  20. Yes (outtake 3) (2:55)

Geoff Mann – all music, lyrics, production, artwork, voices, and instruments, er… except for

Peter Nicholls – extra voice bits

Tony Lythgoe – the particularly good bits of drums & percussion

John Maycraft – the deeply enjoyable lead guitar bits

Marc Catley – the tastefully twanged classical guitar

 

TRACKLISTING

  1. Even Song (1) 01:58
  2. Shut In The Keep 03:35
  3. Sight Sea (instrumental) 05:33
  4. Homeless 01:36
  5. Tomorrow Today 06:05
  6. Options & Opinions (instrumental) 04:27
  7. Yes 05:36
  8. Apathetic & Here, I… 02:53
  9. Ooze 03:38
  10. Where Are You Bound? 09:13
  11. Helping Hand 00:56
  12. Midnight 00:47
  13. A Letter In A Hole In A Tree 01:19
  14. Small Hours Walk, Small Hours Talk (instrumental) 05:21
  15. Even Song (2) 08:13

Bonus Tracks

  1. Homeless (demo) 01:42
  2. Apathetic & Here, I (demo) 02:22
  3. Yes (outtake 1) 02:51
  4. Yes (outtake 2) 01:28
  5. Yes (outtake 3) 02:55

First released by Dutch label SI Music in 1992, this was Geoff’s last solo album and a return to the kind of simpler writing that graced his first solo release which is, of course, referenced in the title of the album.

Recorded at Charter Studios in Manchester in April 1922, the album was engineered by Clive Davenport assisted by Karl Spencer who remembers that “everything appeared to come magically like a sonic landscape from Geoff’s head… and being completely in awe of the Mann’s absolute genius”.

This version also includes five bonus tracks. Two demos and three ‘outtakes’, that were also included in the 2004 re-release. Twenty-five tracks in total running to over 70 minutes.

Enhancing the release is a 24-page booklet, compiled by Spencer Rowbotham, which  includes all of Geoff’s original artwork (the lyrics beautifully illustrated by Geoff), as well as sleeve notes from collaborator Pete Nicholls (IQ) and some contemporary reviews of the original album.

Here are a few quotes from those reviews.

“An album of glorious moments and intelligent strangeness…”.  ALTERNATIVE MAGAZINE

“An experimental rock extravaganza… the best progressive music being produced today…  clearly influenced by Peter Hammill but with a quality that is all his own. “

“His sense of humour is released on “Yes”… in contrast compositions like “Homeless”… illustrate Geoff’s passionate outrage at environmental and social injustice”.