Matt Webster is a composer and musician from the heart of Bradford, UK, where life isn’t always easy and stories in songs are forged in the fires of the daily struggle. His project is Signia Alpha and often incorporates like minded music types such as Paul Gray, bass player of The Damned, and they have released the new full length player, the fairy-tale Wonderland.
The cool, almost reggae beginning to title track “Wonderland,” is married to the seemingly disinterested vocals, which makes this track curiouser and curiouser. The dual vocal by Webster and Harris are taking us down the rabbit hole to a world, our world, where big brother is in control, and are offering a pill to fix your head, or a pill to fix your health. The guitar work is light, but the vocals illicit feelings of restlessness. There is a play of words in regards to Star Trek in the track “A Slave To Enterprise.” Harris gives us vocals that are suitably disenchanted, wavering between the spoken word and the sung chorus, along with the smoky guitar, as they throw up that everything benefits the wealthy. This leads to the Bond inspired instrumental, “For Your Ears Only,” which feels whimsical and an escape into a world of spies, fast cars, faster women, and martinis, shaken, not stirred. It is a mixture of organ like keyboard and duelling guitars that blend magnificently. Paul Tunnicliffe provides his honey rough vocals for the empathy filled “Anyway.” Grungy and stripped back, “Anyway” plays to its strengths and the harmonica makes you think of America in the 30s and 40s, when the homeless often rode the trains for free to eek out an existence.
Returning for the track “Starlight,” Tunnicliffe croons with that gravel worn voice, over psychedelic guitars, stretched sax, and fluttering flute. There is something delicate and magical about “Moonlight” and it hints of a Damned influence. There are delightful guitars reminiscent of the sound of the Damned, Damned, Damned album (though the band says The Black Album…. potato/tomato), sculking saxophone and an air of just letting go in order to enjoy life, and this is possibly my favourite track. “Killing Flies” is one of the first singles and has the dulcet tones of Webster serenading you. Between the story of why they are murdering those buzzing winged creeps in the middle of an English summer and being drawn in by the acoustic guitar, this is an amusing tale. Maybe sleeping in a squat is not such a good idea, but the track is a memory of misguided youth spent in Czechoslovakia.
At the beginning, I say this album is a fairy-tale, as Wonderland is where Alice disappears and in a round about way, finds herself. Most fairy-tales are often based in real life and they don’t really end happily ever after. This is what we experience. Life and it isn’t easy for the common folk with juggling money, time, mental health, aging and a litany of other parameters. Wonderland is the every day, where its joys and flaws are perfectly shared through a myriad musical styles, blended together, with the lynch pin being Matt Webster.
Onyx Music Reviews 