Nick Mason – Nick Mason’s Fictitious Sports (LP)

Album Info Hide Show Artist: Nick Mason Album: Nick Mason’s Fictitious Sports Released: Europe, 2024 Tracklist: A1 Can’t Get My Motor To Start 3:36 A2 I Was Wrong 4:09 A3 Siam 4:45 A4 Hot River 5:12 B1 Boo To You Too 3:23 B2 Do Ya? 4:30 B3 Wervin’ 3:54 B4 I’m A Mineralist 6:14 Info About Buying Vinyl From Our Record Store We are a small independent record store located at 211 High St, Preston in Melbourne, Australia (North of Northcote, between Thornbury & Reservoir) We buy and sell new and used vinyl records – if you have a collection you’d like to sell please click here . We ship Australia wide for a flat rate of $10 for standard shipping or $15 for express post. Free Shipping for orders $150 and over. You can also pick up your order in store, just select Local Pickup at the checkout. We also ship internationally – prices vary depending on weight and location. We ship vinyls in thick, rigid carboard mailers with a crushable zone on either side, and for extra safety we bubble wrap the records. In stock vinyl is usally shipped next business day, please check the availability field at the top of the product page to see whether the record is currently in stock or if it is available from the supplier as well as estimated shipping times. If you order an in stock item together with a pre order or back order (listed as available from supplier rather than in stock) then the order will be shipped together when all items arrive. If you would like the in stock items shipped first please place two separate orders or contact us to arrange shipping items separately. We are strongly committed to customer satisfaction. If you experience any problems with your order contact us so we can rectify the situation. If the record arrives damaged or doesn’t arrive we will cover the cost of replacing or returning the record. If you change your mind you have 30 days to return your record but you must cover the cost of returning it to the store. You can contact our Melbourne record shop at (03) 9939 3807 or at [email protected] Happy Listening! Description Hide Show Nick Masons first solo outing is the kind of left turn that separates the curious from the casual. Released in May 1981, Nick Masons Fictitious Sports isnt a drummers victory lap or a Pink Floyd offcut stash. It is, in spirit and in sound, a Carla Bley album wearing Masons name on the spine. Bley wrote the music, produced the sessions, and brought her circle into the room, then let Masons cool, unflappable touch guide the groove. Recorded in 1979 at Bleys Grog Kill Studio in Willow, New York, it sits at a fascinating crossroads where British art rock meets New Yorks wry, jazz-inclined avant crowd. The guest list alone tells you this wont behave like a run-of-the-mill post-Floyd project. Robert Wyatt, the beloved former Soft Machine singer, takes most of the vocals and colours the record with that unmistakable, tender vibrato. Chris Speddings guitar slices and sings when it needs to. Steve Swallows bass is lithe and quietly melodic. Gary Windos reeds bring bite and slapstick in equal measure, and Michael Mantler drifts trumpet lines through the mix like sly asides. Karen Kraft pops up to front the opening tune and changes the records temperature in an instant. Mason, for his part, anchors it with a precise, often dryly recorded kit that leaves room for Bleys keyboards and the brass to jab and joke. Cant Get My Motor to Start is a cracker of an opener, a comic engine-room of a song that treats funk and big-band vaudeville as close cousins. The horns blurt, the rhythm section nudges, and you can almost see the smirk in the control room. Then Wyatt arrives and the albums heartbeat settles. On I Was Wrong and Siam, his voice turns Bleys and Paul Haines oddball texts into little theatre pieces, tender but tilted. The metres slip around, the melodies unfold at angles, yet the choruses somehow stick. It is playful music with a serious ear for arrangement. Hot River is the track that often snags Pink Floyd trainspotters, and not just because Masons name is on the cover. Spedding climbs into a long, searing solo over a slow-burn vamp that feels halfway between jazz-rock and a spacey torch song. Wyatt floats above it with a kind of bemused melancholy, and Bleys organ swells keep the temperature up without ever turning bombastic. If you came here for some connective tissue to Masons day job, this is probably where youll feel it most. Elsewhere, Boo to You Too lets the horns get cheeky again, Do Ya? and Wervin carry a tight, almost cartoon agility, and Im a Mineralist closes the set with a deadpan love letter to modern composition and repetition that plays like an inside joke youre invited to laugh at. Bleys production tastefully resists the eras worst habits. The drums are dry and close, the horns woody, the keyboards present but not sugary. It sounds like a band in a room, arguing and agreeing in real time. That gives Mason a chance to do what he does best, which is to be tasteful and exact without crowding the frame. He never showboats, and that restraint is a big part of why these idiosyncratic songs feel so complete. Its worth noting the packaging history for crate diggers. The record originally landed on Harvest in the UK, and for years it lived as a cult object in the wider Pink Floyd orbit. In 2018, Mason gathered this album with Profiles and White of the Eye in the Unattended Luggage box set, giving Nick Masons Fictitious Sports vinyl a proper modern pressing. If youre trawling a Melbourne record store or searching for vinyl records Australia wide, youll see that reissue mentioned a lot. Its a tidy way to buy Nick Mason records online without gambling on an old copy, and for anyone collecting Nick Mason albums on vinyl it puts this quirky gem back within reach. Is it a Pink Floyd record in disguise? Not really. It is a snapshot of a moment when a famous drummer lent his name and chops to a brilliant composers mischievous world, then let her call the plays. If you love Robert Wyatts voice, if Carla Bleys sardonic, tune-rich writing hits your sweet spot, or if you just want to hear Nick Mason in a different light, this is a rewarding spin. Pull a clean Nick Mason vinyl pressing, pour something, and let these eight songs bend the room a few degrees to the left. Its an odd album, but its an easy one to love. Product Reviews Hide Show Write a Review