The release of Monkey in the Machine by UK art rock outfit TemperToo is another pleasant surprise in what is shaping up to be another magnificent year for great rock music. In addition to the music, I embed here, you can pop along to https://tempertoo.bandcamp.com

There is an interesting backstory to this project consisting of Steve Hubbard on vocals, keyboards & bass and Ian Ormiston Stables on acoustic and electric guitars, and that is the original act TemperTemper, which was founded in the 1980’s alongside Martin Collins, who makes a guest appearance here on Don’t Throw It All Away, were offered the chance by the former Charisma Records boss in 1988 to work with Fish, the Big Wedge having just left Marillion. They couldn’t owing to work commitments, and the band drifted apart.

Come 2018, Ormiston Stables “found” Hubbard on Facebook and discovered that they lived less than an hour from each other and after some jam sessions, recorded their debut album, Telegraph Road in 2021.

This sophomore effort contains eight brand new songs, plus a couple of previously unreleased efforts, and I like the overarching story inspiration behind the work, and it is worth recreating in full for the purposes of this review, because the following words will, I know, resonate with you strongly.  The times when you finish a day, thinking you’ve created a work of brilliance; only to revisit the following morning and realise the monkey had broken loose in your head and that the work is destined for the bin - along with countless earlier attempts… Or the times when five minutes from home, questioning whether you locked the door or not? Turning back, you not only find the door safely locked, but now you’re running late and fearing any watching neighbours think you crazy (happens to me all the time!)… Perhaps the time when you have laid awake at night after socialising; worrying you’ve said too much; or the wrong things and that now your associates will think you a fool and excommunicate you. The Monkey In The Machine.

It is a hugely enjoyable musical ride, so let’s discuss the individual tracks and introduce you to some of the music.

We start with the title track, which I have embedded below, a delicious mix of funk, pop/rock, electronica, so piles and piles going on. It is chaotic, in the best tradition of blokey lives, somewhat full on, with Hubbard a bit trancey. We get the first sound of some seriously good guitar riffs (I have embedded a video below of the highlights of this created by the band themselves). I assume that the drums and percussion have been programmed, and whilst effective, it would be interesting to hear the impact a drummer would have on the music.

Syndicate A is the phrase the duo uses to describe the World Economic Forum, which I think most readers of this review would recognise as the annual outing in Davos of political and corporate wankers accompanied by what seems like half the world’s media on a fully paid up winter jolly. There is a video for this, and it is embedded below. Straight away, the dystopian keys and the sense of the terrified ordinary human in the face of such wealth and power is stark. The numbers flash in front of us, and it doesn’t matter which political wing gains power, nothing will change. There is some strong rhythm guitar and melodic bass work on this, with the vocals hoarse and harsh.

Money Talking is a cracker, a deeply intelligent and knowing commentary on modern financial market practices of gambling on companies and, by extension, peoples’ futures, with hedge funds making vast fortunes on the back of misery, and the fact that, incredibly, we put up with this in the absence of a serious debate (let alone a revolution). In this case, the protagonist himself ends up on his uppers, and it is difficult to find too much sympathy. There is a nice jazz sensibility to this track, some great piano, rumbling bassline, a guitar riff which oozes the dirty casino of the financial world, and vocals which could easily be translated to a different depression era. I think this is a fantastic piece of music.

As I write this review, a dear friend of mine at work and his wife are celebrating the birth of their first child, a baby son. Congratulations to Liam & Sam. C’est La Vie is immeasurably sadder, telling us of a couple who try and try again without success to conceive, and eventually give up. The pain and the empty cry of not giving a damn is pretty stark in a song which has a deep Americana feel to it. Just short of two minutes in, there is a beautiful guitar solo which stands in deep contrast to what preceded it before the main theme reasserts itself. Influenced by a certain Mr Knopfler, no stranger to playing American roots music of course, this is a good piece of music. I have embedded it below.

Shadows is something many blokes have encountered at some point in their lives, that of a girlfriend two-timing them. I think this is one of the highlights of the musical year thus far. It is dripping with personal feeling and, I don’t doubt, real life experience. The vocals are starkly cathartic, the guitar lines are aching with feeling and haunting in places, the denouement builds with such an intensity. Quite simply, this piece is worth the entrance fee on its own.

No Time To Cry has a deep 1970’s art rock influence within it, has some cracking riffs, a beautifully deep bass at its core, with some interesting effects overlaid in parts, on a song which talks to me of loneliness and the impact of our fellow human’s cruelty in how they treat someone who might be a little bit “different”. I really like the Acapela voices towards the close.

Don’t Throw It All away is shrouded in sadness, an old man who wants to leave this mortal coil owing to the pain and the medication but has friends and family trying to stop him “checking out”. This matter of ending one’s existence when one wishes to do so is the subject of a lot of debate now, and is a very difficult subject, so it is to their credit that the band tackle it. I have embedded this track below. There are some symphonic keys, Collins adds some lovely piano melodies to what is a very thoughtful piece of music, and the more I hear this album, the more I am impressed with the guitar work of Ormiston Stables, because some of the lines here are so beautiful as to defy words. A stunning track which will certainly figure as a contender on this website’s 2024 awards.

Closer to the Edge is a pseudo live bonus track and deals with the threat of nuclear war. Steve and Ian, of course, like me, lived through that era in the 1970’s and ‘80’s where lyrics such as Two Suns In The Sunset by The Floyd (well, Waters) amplified a very real daily fear of many of us, and with Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, Kim Wrong ‘Un’s nonsense in Korea, and the bellicose attitude of China towards its erstwhile colony, Taiwan, this is once again a threat to our collective existence. I really like the vocals on this, very expressive, and the bass is a treat for those, like me, who enjoy the use of this instrument as a bit more than simply keeping time.

TemperToo are one of those acts which this website simply loves to cover. The progressive music world is most definitely a very difficult one for artists to get noticed by the wider population, and that is before we start talking about commerciality, but I think this is an album which deserves exposure and ultimately success. A deeply honest album with flashes of inspirational music, I cannot recommend it highly enough.