Dome of Discovery
Review in T MERSHI DUWEEN, Feb 1994

Judge Smith: ‘Dome Of Discovery’ (Oedipus Recs THEBESOO3)

Guess I really shouldn't review my own product here, but what the hell? I have nothing else to fill up this small space. Judge was a founding member of Van der Graaf Generator in 1967. He left in 1969 and this is his first ‘real’ solo album, barring ‘Democrazy’ from 1991. Twelve songs in intelligent English mode, but with a band the likes of which the world never saw. The arrangements are for four driving cellos, four trumpets, a zydeco/cajun rhythm section, Duane Eddy on guitar, choir and soprano. Oh yeah, and JS on vox. Guaranteed you won’t have heard anything else like it!

It opens with ‘Tell Me You Love Me’ (not the FZ song), which sets the stamp on the affair. It’s silly, but shit, does it move! ‘Carpet Tiles’ is all about a couple who buy those items at auction, only to find they can’t sell them; ‘Giant Hand’ is a tale of woeful paranoia, cellos a-pumping furiously. There’s a colossal trumpet solo on the fade of ‘God Save The Tzar' before the two pieces de resistance, the manic ‘Jimmy-Jimmy’, with the outrageous call and answer between choir and guitar; followed by the splendiferous ‘A Place Of Your Own’, one of only two ‘serious’ pieces, a dark little item that puts Shakespeare seven ages of man into three. If very English songwriting is your thing, then this is for you.