“Uh-oh, another singer-songwriter!” cries the man in the sorting office, examining his mail. “Shall we let it pass?” With a shrug of the shoulders, the supervisor allows the parcel to reach the Bluesbunny HQ. It happens to be “Turn on the Long Wire”, the debut album of Glasgow-based song weaver Yusuf Azak. The ears are unfolded, prominent and poised to listen.
Immediately apparent on opening track “Your Story” is Azak’s delicate command of his guitar, although his vocals are mostly lost beneath constant humming. Such hymnal sounds, either human or synthetic, continually muffle Azak’s words. It’ll score points with art scholars but that’s about all.
“Time to Kill”, albeit with a little orchestral backing, and “Rosalie” with its faded Spanish guitar, are much the same. We are given a little to cheer about on “The Key Underground” either with some clapped percussion entering the mix but we’re still hearing the same icy, ethereal sounds.
On “Stepping Stone”, we finally begin to hear what Azak has to say. One of the better tracks on the album, we finally get to experience the singing and guitar that threatened to happen before. “Eastern Sun” follows in this vein, Yusuf finally finding his voice while almost turning the picked notes of his guitar into colours. Now, this is captivating.
Talk about saving the best until last? Some absolutely majestic (however ephemeral) guitar work can be heard on “Christabel Blues”. Too bad that it’s the last song on the album and many will have tuned out long before then.
To say that “Turn on the Long Wire” is unique is being rather kind. Song structure seems to be regarded by Azak as somewhat of an equation while it is all too easy for the common shmuck to ignore the fact that Azak’s songs are densely layered. However, the last four tracks of the album are enough to merit some sort of recommendation. Go find it and draw your own conclusions.