Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
Without it, you may as well be looking at life through the confines of humdrum, of just going from day to day in the monotonous routine and the makeshift, make-do dull and instantly forgettable; for where there is no build up, there can be no sense of earned excitement, there can be no discovery of just how far your expectations can go and how far they can thrill you. Without 4 Play from Geoff Carne and the Hatz in your life, then the dull seeps in and the day becomes not just beige, but school uniform insipid and dusty.
There have been many times in which it feels that Geoff Carne and the Hatz have saved the day, in which they have relieved the ticking of the clock of its bite and ravenous snarl, in which they have wrestled with the silence that consumes and come up with track after track, song after song, which cultivates and nourishes the need in the soul to cry havoc and let slip the music of life.
4 Play is different in only one respect, it has more cascading beauty within its covers that is thought on first listen. 4 Play is not just a set of songs thrown together for a quick fire E.P. release, it is a statement of what is to come, that this brightly coloured herald is not just playing the part of messenger, it is keeping the mood going, the encore before the following night, the removal of an insane government that has blighted the country.
The tracks Down and Out, Maybe Someday, Medicine Man and the stirring Forgiven with its generous addition of piano by Paul Mex, don’t just sit on the sidelines waiting to be introduced, from the moment the first song thrusts its hands out there is a fission of undeniable allure and intrigue; the listener cannot but help be engaged, be given hope that they too can kick out at the machine, put on the hat and walk with a swagger and a smile.
4 Play continues what was already there; Geoff Carne and Mick Hatz in entrancing form, a sense of beguiling magic and the ability to see it through without ever coming up short, Geoff Carne and the Hatz have delivered impeccably.
Geoff Carne and the Hatz release 4 Play on February 23rd.
Ian D. Hall