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  In moments of serene contemplation one sometimes wonders how the year 2012 will be viewed by those who will follow us in the misty myths of the near and distant future. Will they wistfully recall the London Olympics? Or the 200th anniversary of Dickens’ birth? Or the Queen’s diamond jubilee? Or the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic? Just possibly all these great events might be overshadowed by the release of the new CD from the enigmatic and eccentric rock band The Imp Of The Perverse.

  Ironically, since their name derives from Poe’s tale about the compulsion to do what you know you shouldn’t do, they have been strangely quiet and seemingly fallow in their Lake District rural retreat for the last few years. It now appears that they have been working on their pièce de résistance, ‘Eyes Like Cloudless Skies’, a 19-track record which totals over an hour. People who have heard their songs before will initially be reassured to note that the raw, do-it-yourself ethos remains, but the Imps then veer off into very (for them) virgin and almost commercial territory. With the acrobatic verve of a speeding chameleon performing conjuring tricks they leap from punk to jazz to folk to Glass minimalism to techno to blues to Gregorian chants and even, I reckon, to a string quartet. And it’s all their own material.

  Furthermore, there are sounds on the disc which must come from another planet, another time. Infused throughout with their trademark poetical wit and wisdom. Past comparisons with The Fall, The Velvet Underground, Public Image Ltd., Sonic Youth, Pulp and Serge Gainsbourg are suddenly rendered somehow hackneyed, inadequate and effete.

  Formerly based in the Lancaster area, although originally from south and west of Lancashire, that is where they perpetrated their previous recordings and gigs. In a creative burst through the late 90s and into the early 00s they released ‘The Pimp Of The Obverse’, ‘Perversity At The BBC’, ‘Impossible People’ and ‘All Bum And Greatest Tits’. They notoriously made local headlines by being precipitately thrown out of one pub when they launched into an extremely rude song about a certain Madonna!

  The Imp Of The Perverse are getting to grips with the logistics of staging some overdue concerts later this year. One can only hope they will include in their set their raucous singalong renditions of ‘The Is Nothin’ Like A Dame’ and ‘Non, Je Ne Regrette Rien’!!!