058/ Debut album by Cousin Ben out now
After two decades in music, my lovely friend Cousin Ben has — at last — released his solo debut, a self-titled record, yes, Cousin Ben.
I produced this album and I’m proud of what I brought to it. But even if I wasn’t involved, I think I’d still shout to you about it. It’s an excellent, unusual collection of songs, but also, how rare and refreshing to have an artist so experienced in the music-making world, yet they leave it this long before releasing their first solo material. In an industry so heavily slanted towards promoting (exploiting) very young acts, forcing that sense of public development, it’s fabulous to get the first taste of someone’s artistry at a later stage of life. Cousin Ben appears as a wholly mature piece of work, and Ben is an artist profoundly disinterested in the ebb and flow of the ‘business’ of music making, he’s doing it purely for creative self-expression.
Cousin Ben on Bandcamp | Apple Music | Spotify
Ben’s written in more detail about the LP on his own newsletter.
The record lands in the space where alt/rock meets slowcore, so it’s atmospheric, sometimes sprawling, poetic and downbeat, though with explosive moments. Nods in the direction of The National, Talk Talk, Low, occasionally even Nick Cave without so much grandiosity. If you like your working class ‘sad dad’ indie shot through with an unexpected Proustian sensibility, Cousin Ben is well worth checking out.
I met Ben in the early 2000s at the office of our local newspaper, when he was singing drummer in noughties Brighton disco/punk (faux French) cult trio Le Frange, local legends by then. In 2007, Ben joined my band and we played together for a decade — the second half of my Chris T-T career — until I stopped in 2017. After that, you probably already know we then pivoted to being the live band for Jim Bob off of Carter USM and we’ve made three hit albums with Jim so far. All that time, behind the scenes I’ve known Ben as a very good singer and songwriter. But he’s rarely gigged, never released any music. It wasn’t until after the pandemic that Cousin Ben was conceived.
Producing the record, I played bass guitar and keyboards. I also arranged and scored the strings, which I’ve written about here before and gave me one of the best days of my life in autumn 2023, sitting in the control room in the Norfolk countryside, hearing my score brought to life by professional orchestral players.
My personal favourite tracks are probably two of the epic long ones: ‘Waiting On The Engines’ (Fugazi meets Leonard Cohen, anyone?) and perhaps ‘Something In The Water’ (for its huge wibbly monosynth build at the end, and some of the production touches I most love).
On the other hand, somewhat lost inside the record, having spent so much time immersed in it, my real favourite moments tend to be these tiny motes of time that I adore, but listeners may not even notice. Like the mingled guitar and sixties organ solo on ‘To The River’. Or on ‘Oh, Heather’, the opening verse is from the demo recording, so it has this lo-fi, thin, brittle quality — but then the song lifts wide open as the rich, fierce live strings roll in. Stuff like that is incredible for me on my ‘producer learning curve’, but I have to accept few casual listeners will consciously clock much of it.
Anyway, if all this sounds like your bag, please have a listen and share Cousin Ben with anyone you think might enjoy it. Thank-you.
icymi —
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Score keeper, deduct a life.
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Art can absolutely save your life. But believe me when I tell you that entertainment will never be your salvation. No-one ever escaped their chains by forgetting they were there. Expecting Kendrick to rap so good that Trump is like “imma stop” … like be serious! If you want a revolution, if you want change, you’re gonna have to go outside and get some. Or make some.
— Josh Johnson
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