Pedal Steal + Four Corners

Now here's a fascinating one. Terry Allen is an artist of many forms: a conceptual artist, painter, writer, playwright, and (most prolifically) a country musician. This release is a collection of five performance pieces recorded between 1985 and 1993. The works are each based around spoken word performed over a bed of music and frequently interspersed with songs. Allen's stories revolve around the lives of people at the fringes of society, usually within his native Texas. Laced together with the music, they create extremely evocative set-pieces.

The first is ‘Pedal Steal’. Originally written as a soundtrack to a dance performance, it tells the tragic tale of ne'er-do-well pedal steel player Billy the Boy. The narrative is punctuated and accompanied by a mixture of country music, Navajo songs, Tex-Mex conjuntos and jazz as well as abstract soundscapes and found sounds.

The ‘four corners’ of the album's title are four radio plays, each following a different set of outlaws, peasants and down-and-outs. They are as riveting and charmingly bittersweet as ‘Pedal Steal’ with the exception of one. ‘Torso Hell’ is as evocative as the rest, but completely unpleasant: a dark, disturbing and ultra-violent critique on war narratives in Hollywood. Good art maybe, but that doesn't mean it's enjoyable – a shame, when compared to the rest of the set.