GRASSHOPPER AND THE GOLDEN CRICKETS The Orbit Of Eternal Grace (Beggars Banquet)
That being Grasshopper (a.k.a. Sean Mackowiak), guitarist of the recently re-emergent Mercury Rev, of course, and The Golden Crickets are a loose collective of musicians that includes the Rev’s flautist Suzanne Thorpe among their constantly shifting number. "The Orbit Of Eternal Grace" is a lightweight but not unenjoyable collection of nursery rhyme whimsey, slightly lumpy psychedelia and longggg instumentals, a description which, come to think of it, places it not a million miles away from the sole album from ex-Mercury Rev vocalist David Baker’s Boo Radley-assisted Shady project. Nice enough - especially the marble-effect coloured vinyl - but inconsequential for all but the hardened Mercury Rev obsessive.