Billboard
July 13, 1985
Talent In Action
Robyn Hitchcock & The Egyptians
Irving Plaza, New York
Tickets: $10
by Jeff Tamarkin
Despite the fact that he has been recording since 1977, Robyn Hitchcock is still an unkown entity among the mass American audience. His current Slash album, Fegmania!, is his first release here, following three as leader of The Soft Boys and three as a solo artist in England.
Because of his solid body of previous work, though, it wasn't surprising to find that a rabid crowd of admirers greeted Hitchcock And The Egyptians -- basically the ex-Soft Boys with a new keyboardist -- at their first New York show June 21.
They didn't go away disappointed. Hitchcock is considered a pioneer of the newly thriving "Psychedleic Revival", owing a great deal to the sound of early Pink Floyd -- and that group's founder Syd Barrett in particular. The major difference between Hitchcock and the '60s Floyd is that the looseness and experimentalism of the older group gives way to a tightly arranged Pop sensibility in Hitchcock. This isn't so much a revivalist act as one which places the classic English Psych- and Folk Rock elements into a distinctly contemporary environment.
While songs such as "My Wife And My Dead Wife" and "The Man With The Lightbulb Head" could certainly qualify as bizarre, there was enough impressive melody and harmony to make Hitchcock accessible. And anyway, Pink Floyd never rocked so hard.
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