Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
To step back from the rush and haste of the world, even when it has been forced to re-evaluate its principles and the price it is willing to pay for the appearance of progress, is to be seen as Playing For Time, the imagery of hesitation, of uncertainty in the realm of expectation and demand galloping over the horizon as if to suggest that someone else will step in and claim the glory of what is rightfully belongs to the artist who wavered too long in their final delivery.
Nothing could be further from the truth, playing for time is understanding that the dramatic impact of the moment delayed actually adds gravitas, the moment becomes uncensured, unhurried, and as it stands presented in its fullness, its glory, the audience hangs on the anticipation of what will come next.
It is with impact and the joy of the anticipation that Terence Blacker’s Playing For Time hits home, the songs resonating as one would expect a substantial and generously struck gold, going to catch the attention of even the most adherent devotee of the ignorant gesture and pull them into the conversation. There is no trick or ploy in such ability to bring all ears to attention, it just takes what could be described as the common touch, but is in fact the assured agility of the performer pulling at the strings of empathy, compassion and anger to provide that singular most attractive response; communication for all.
Between the song writer and the lyricist stands the observer, the witness to all of humanity’s follies and potential, the eagle-eyed viewer who will pen the tales of our downfall, the trials and tribulations and that spark of joy which gives us meaning; there stands the immensity of Terence Blacker, ready to enlighten, offering the listener the bound up frustration of truth and imagination in one enormously satisfying album.
Across songs such as The Anno Domini Rag, Europe, Mein Amour, the excellent and incredibly awesome Fake News, I Fool Myself and Thank You To My Team, Terence Blacker scrutinises the depth of the human condition and the response is a cascade of emotional pleasure, an album that shoots an arrow at the heart of the machine and manages to seize its gears, the noise grinding to halt as the music and observations overpower it, make it submit to his and ours by default, will.
Playing For Time is a rare and marvellous examination of the Folk creed, humorous, beautiful, deadly, a real treat for the senses.
Terence Blacker’s Playing For Time is out now and available from Talking Cat Recordings.
Ian D. Hall