Lone Striker - Blip One

Tom Brown’s name might ring a bell to those who follow the indie DIY scene with religious devotion. He’s released a number of fuzzy, jangly and melodic records with his bands Rural France (Meritorio Records) and Teenage Tom Petties (Safe Suburban Home and Repeating Cloud) to warm acclaim in the blogosphere. But his new project, Lone Striker, is a different proposition.
Captured at home using a selection of bedroom instruments, and augmented by wobbly doo-wop samples, off-kilter soul drum loops and found sounds, Tom has spent five years making a record that takes a lifelong love of warped Americana (think: Sparklehorse, Mercury Rev, Silver Jews) and puts it through a very British lens. A patchwork of sounds and stories, beamed from a broken transistor radio.
The songs themselves are immaculately crafted. With nods to the melodies, structures and arrangements of the Brill Building golden years, Lone Striker’s scruffy, warm heart has melancholy and melody pumping through it. It’s there in the aching vocal of ‘Never Blown A Kiss’ and the horn-augmented climax of ‘Blip Two’.
While LS has been a long and mostly solitary pursuit, there was room for a few guests. Most notably, Billy Fuller of BEAK, who lends his beautiful bass lines to the weary first single, ‘Dunno’, and the Buddy Holly-with-a-hangover rave up of ‘Cursed Like Roy’.
‘Lone’ is out now on Safe Suburban Home (UK), Repeating Cloud (US) and Hidden Bay Records (Europe).
The album, Lone Striker, will follow on 14th March 2025.