aaamusic | On 03, Jun 2010

Following excellent reviews for his self-titled debut album, PEARLY GATE MUSIC will be visiting these shores in a few weeks time for his first-ever UK shows, performing at Hard Rock Calling in Hyde Park, with his buddies The Middle East in Brighton, and a headline show at the Slaughtered Lamb in early July… dates/info below…

 Sunday 27 June – HYDE PARK – Hard Rock Calling (Bella Union stage)

 Monday 28 June – BRIGHTON – Freebutt (with The Middle East)

 Monday 5 July – LONDON – Slaughtered Lamb (£8)

“After nearly a decade of trying to be a decent, hard-working proletariat,” says ZACH TILLMAN, “I’ve taken up permanent residency on Deadbeat Street. And what better way to spend time there than home recording?”

 Deadbeat?? Not on this evidence. The debut solo album named under his intriguing alias PEARLY GATE MUSIC is haunting, mysterious, elusive… Listening to Pearly Gate Music is like descending the rabbit warren. You don’t know where it will lead. The same as with music recommendations – one leads to another, and to another. In this case, Simon Raymonde at Bella Union first heard Fleet Foxes, which introduced him to J.Tillman, the band’s drummer and solo artist, which then led to Josh’s younger brother Zach.

 But Zach is a different species to his bro. While it’s a safe bet both appreciate Neil Young, and there are occasional moods that echo Fleet Foxes, at other times the ghost of Big Star floats up Along with a healthy dose of rock’n’roll classicism. For his part, Zach says his musical origins can be found in a love for Pavement’s Slanted And Enchanted, which steered him toward the Velvets and Neutral Milk Hotel, among others.

 Album opener ‘Golden Funeral’ is perhaps the most spellbinding intro you’re likely to hear this year, with hushed, distant, hymnal sounding like they’re suspended in mid-air, though the mood quickly alters for the summery, happy-sad strumming of ‘Big Escape’… Later on, ‘Gossamer Hair’ mutates from tender ballad to a wracked splurge of energy, while the double vocals of ‘Oh, What A Time’ are pure Everly Brothers – no surprise to learn that it’s Zach and Josh together.

 Surely one of 2010’s finest debuts, “Pearly Gate Music” was released in late April on Bella Union records…