Dome of Discovery
FACELIFT (USA), No. 13

JUDGE SMITH
Dome Of Discovery
Oedipus Recs
Thebes OO3

I'd been musing for a while about how a songwriter going under the name of The Divine Comedy was getting a lot of media attention, when his admittedly excellent voice and work was really a throwback to the perennially ignored Peter Hammill. That's the advantage of being a young Turk, I suppose.

Then along came this CD by a somewhat older Turk, which showed a whole range of similarities in sound and approach. (Chris) Judge Smith was in the original Van der Graaf Generator, but disappeared before recording a note, for 20 odd years, re-emerging as credited librettist to Hammill's epic opera 'Usher'. Fine, but we still didn't really know what he was all about.

Now we do, thanks to 'Dome of Discovery', and Judge Smith turns out to be an excellent, if eccentric songwriter and singer. Upbeat, catchy tunes are backed by the mournful, grandiose strains of strings, simulated or otherwise. That's definite common ground with The Divine Comedy, as is a resonant voice that recalls also Mr Hammill. There's much too of the musical in Judge Smith -lyrics that convey, by clarity and humour, a definite storyline. At times (with choruses such as 'Carpet Tiles', or 'Don't Point That Thing At Me', a modern gun-slinger's tale), it appears to be quite daft. At others, ('Giant Hand', 'A Place of My Own') it's the music which shines through. Really excellent.