A Brief Reminder To - Rabelski LP - "Stickers on Keys"...The Winter Sounds...

Having been lured to the Manchester music scene from his Midlands hometown Leamington Spa back in 1994, Martin Roman Rebelski is a man keen to let his ear guide him, an approach which has served him well in the careful construction of Stickers On Keys, his second solo album.

Rebelski is in fact a keyboard player by trade but master of so much more. He modestly explains his aptitude as a mix of youthful curiosity and happy happenstance, 'When I was 16 I used to work in an old music shop demonstrating pianos, but I just ended up playing everything I could get my hands on. There were accordians, synths, glockenspiels - any crazy old thing.' This delicate aura of bric-a-brac completely surrounds the songs of Stickers On Keys, pieces of music built around instruments rather than by them.

Stickers On Keys may not be his first full-length but could be considered a debut of a different sort, being his premier release for new label Twisted Nerve. For Rebelski previously called Heavenly Records home before one man's enthusiasm tempted him the way of the Nerve. This was none other than TN figurehead Damon Gough, so enamoured with Martin's first album that he insisted Rebelski not only sign to his label but that he covered all the A&R as well. In keeping with the fashion of the company the deal was struck 'over a game of pool' and the long-term pals were now business associates; artist and entrepreneur.

Did me mention that Martin plays keyboards for Doves? In fact, a strong current of kinship runs right through Stickers On Keys. Fellow Doves-mates lend a familiar hand in Scallywag and In Space For A Day, with frontman Jimi Goodwin reverting to his old position behind the kit on Remote Control. New personal friend and string accomplice Lizzie Hoskin adds orchestral depth throughout and Roger Quigley (Montgolfier Brothers) joins Mike TV (Beats For Beginners) for various vocal assignments.

In the flesh, Rebelski is whittled down into an eight-piece band, but ten musicians and colleagues appear throughout the record to stir in their own flavours. Other strokes of detail and particular flourishes were provided by stuff lying around at home - the aforementioned glockenspiels, accordions recorders and such like. Who said on-the-job experience was dead?

It's an approach which Rebelski attributes to his love of Steve Reich, Brian Eno, Tom Waits and Aphex Twin, their influence yet more evident in the twinkling electronic starlight of opener Alka Seltzer and gentle, aquatic lullaby As The Crow Flies. Elsewhere Martin lets his ivories take centre stage, teasing out strands of melody like spinning silk through Magic Calculator and single Play The School Piano...info by Twisted Nerve.

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