Album Review: Four Stones by Dean McPhee

Bingley-based guitarist Dean McPhee (previously with Blast First Petite) is now onto his third full-length solo album, following 2015’s excellent Fatima’s Hand. On the Kickstarter-funded Four Stones, he is continuing to resonantly fingerpick Telecaster routes through a dubby background of echo, reverb, drones and loops. The effect is as if leaving the listener stranded on dank, deserted moorland in a century long past. There, only the tiny breaths of tremolo can possibly bring warmth to bones shivering under wet tunics. The first three tracks here originally came out on Folklore Tapes compilations, and have been remastered for this limited 180g vinyl run.

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Whilst it’s been a fair while since Dean McPhee’s last full album – 2015’s darkly probing Fatima’s Hand self-released via his Hood Faire label – the lone electric six-string explorer has been far from idle. Besides bouts of touring, McPhee has diligently drip-fed out his wares through repeated appearances via the esoteric DIY Folklore Tapes enterprise (across several compilations and an ornithology-themed split double-10” set with Mary Arches) and on a shared lathe-cut 7” with the likeminded Seabuckthorn on the even more obscure Sonido Polifonico imprint. Perhaps conscious of his piecemeal yields being overlooked in hidden corners, this new vinyl-only album, again on Hood Faire, rounds-up three tracks from out of print Folklore Tapes cassette collections alongside two fresh cuts.

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