April 8, 2000

I Can Hear A New World

Tim Allon Ten Thousand Years From Now/I Can Hear A New World(Fierce Panda)

Tim Allon

Ten Thousand Years From Now/I Can Hear A New World(Fierce Panda)

Here's the sum of our knowledge about Tim Allon. He's a funny little guy from Glasgow. He has no band and has never played live. He sent a muffled demo tape to Fierce Panda just before Christmas 1999, and now, three months later, has delivered into the world one of the sparkliest, most charming debut singles of the new century. 'Ten Thousand Years From Now' is a chiming, splinter-in-the-heart valentine - a cascade of corkscrew guitars and pointillist pricks of tinny percussion in which Tim is heard waxing philosophical about how even our most gruesome, desperate deeds and emotions won't matter a jot once they've been erased on the giant chalk board of time. "Life is short and life is frantic... it won't matter ten thousand years from now", he trills, and he sounds as though he's smiling as he mouths the words. Second A-side 'I Can Hear A New World', meanwhile, is a more upbeat exercise in musical soothsaying, which - wait for it! - features the flautist from The Monsoon Bassoon. Thoroughly delightful, on all counts.

April Long