
photo: Simon Robinson
So, if British poet Brian Bilston and indie band The Catenary Wires join forces for an album, will the old adage that the sum is greater than its parts stand up in court? The answer is yes, it bloody well does. Sounds Made By Humans is a record that is filled to the rafters with wit and smart hooks, the words and music playing hide and seek and having a whale of a time together.
Whether it is taking the piss out of the dread trying to land a new job (The Interview), inserting a bucket load of song titles and lyrics snippets into Every Song On The Radio Reminds Me Of You, the arduous task of picking the right songs for a Compilation Cassette, where the only certainty is that there will be no country & western on it, Bilston and The Catenary Wires always find the right words and music to get the message across. If anything, this is an album that takes pity on the shy wallflowers at a party and people trying to cope with a world that has turned into a shapeshifting mess, but there is also room for satire. 31 Rules For Midlife Rebellion proclaims "add more syllables to haiku" and "never wear Ramones T-shirts" and: wait for it: "don't listen to songs in the forms of lists".