It’s not often that we delve into the archives but the opportunity presented itself when, through Twitter, I found “Never Stop the Rock” from TOM in my feed. Founded as a one-man act during the 1990s in Granada, Spain, by singer / songwriter / guitarist Tom Kron, the project grew through the late 2000s-early 2010s to include Jan Pohl on guitars from 2007, and by Peter Bieley (mandolin, violin) and Dr. Jan Hendrikxs on drums from 2011. It appears that Javi López (bass) became involved only for this album. The project has been bookended by Tom’s solo work which comprises an album in 1999 and two other releases in 2018 and last year.
Reminiscent, for me, of Stephen Robinson’s releases during my community radio days, “Common Man” was a means for Tom to commit his music to the human canon. And since “Rock”, Kron has moved on with the same production values to get his music “out there”, with “Light in the Gutter” the standout of the pre- and post-“Rock” work. Showing, as you would expect, his Spanish roots, he comes across in a Tom Waits kind of vein.
But to the reason for this piece today, “Never Stop the Rock” comes to you with some thought provoking cover artwork- what exactly is happening here? I’ll leave this to the punter, and plunge right into the music with This Isn’t A Crime delivering the promised “alt-rock” from the outset in the Tom Waits vocal style that Sean McCarthy was presenting during his Stimulust period of the mid-00s in which I was also involved. But here we also hear Señor Bieley’s violin featured as a means of colouring the work and the beginning of a signature sound for the record. I Want You … follows, confirming the folk / lo-fi / alt-rock style that Crime had already established for the record.
Never Stop the Rock returns to the lo-fi of “Common Man” with a live recording, followed by another live recording as a Tribute to Neil. London Town drops the mood a bit, returning again to the lo-fi “Common Man” vibe, which continues through the mood-uplifting jam of The Bird Song. Mrs Robinson is not a cover of the Simon & Garfunkel/Lemonheads favourite; the mathematically inaccurate 9 x 8 = 22 picks the mood back up with another live recording (a Life, The Universe, and Everything tilt, like 42 was inaccurate, perhaps?); Please Go drops the mood again, while Das Model provides a positive ending to the collection with a cover of the famous Kraftwerk piece and my favourite track of the ten.
“Never Stop the Rock” is more an idiom than an ideal and, apart from the uptempo moments of Crime, 22, and Model, doesn’t really. A little more time could have been spent putting some polish on the record, but lo-fi is a genre which was well achieved here. I had hoped for more.