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DEREK DEPRATOR & THE ATOMIC CRASH
When the train left the station
A record called “When the train left the station” obviously has to be a country-record. It is all in the name already: the trains (the west, the plains, the wild life) and the leaving (the losing, the love gone wrong, the live gone bad). But that is not all. Derek DePrator and his band manage to pound out some rockers as well as tuning in for the odd, manic ballad. To find the really good country-stuff (and it does exist, I know) you have to turn to the fringes and the outskirts of the genre – which is actually true for almost every musical style – turn over some stones and never be afraid of what you might find. This is the place where Derek DePrator lives and works and you’ll be glad as soon as you’ve found him. Come time, I will also have turned you onto country-music, as I did with Bernd from Dhyana record (just joking). With a silk-screened cover on the non-playable side, this record will be one of the treasures in design and music in anybody’s collection.
This record contains various debuts in itself and as it comes from Dhyana-record it has turned out really special and beautiful. And is so good, it’ll get a “highly recommended” from me. But let’s take one step after the other. “When the train left the station” is Derek DePrators debut-album. At first that statement might seem like a strange notion, actually, because it is a one-sided vinyl-lp with seven songs on it, which to some people might not count as a full album (especially in our times of CDs, where everyone thinks they have to put at least 70 minutes of music on each and any release). Moreover, the 3”-CD on Ouzel-records also had five songs (and some fragments) on it. On the other hand, the 3”-CD is very different from the recordings on this album. Instead of the clandestine, drunken songwriter, recording straight to four-track, desperately waiting to be discovered by true fans and singing his heart out in the meantime, on this album you’ll get a much cleaner, fuller sound. Derek DePrator has brought the full band, The Atomic Crash, in various formations (all in all ten people, among them Thomas O. Huber, who might be known to the Glitterhouse-crowd out there) into various studios to record songs that stand as such.
And the songs go over a great variety of emotions and atmospheres, without ever losing that earthbound, alternative-country (callitwhatchalike) feeling and a certain rocking twang. From the straight forward opener “How great it is”, that drives down the long and winding road between (rocking) Jayhawks and Ragged Glory to the more country-esque and stripped down to the bones “Daddy’s not coming home”. The latter song also shows the strange sense of humour of DePrator, because Daddy ran off with a whore from Chicago, but it all seems to turn out good in the end, even though the “folk singer gone berserk”-style of vocals on this song may hint at other, implied endings. A songtitle like “All my friends (come from broken homes)” will also give you a sense of what DePrator likes to sing about. To put another edge on it, this song has a happy and youthful melody in contrast to the grave and dire issue.
Close to the end of the record “Alone” gives you a definite honky-tonk feeling, changling and jingling piano and the slightly distorted voice of DePrator reminding me of David Bowie at times. But I took to many pills in my life to have a good memory of anything. In some songs the vocals remind me of either Arcwelder or Rein Sanction, though I wonder if many people except me remember those bands. (Then I remember, that the singer of Arcwelder used to remind me of Peter Gabriel at times, now what does that make of me?) The apt album-closer is “It’s time to say goodbye”, which reminds me even more of Bowie during his Ziggy Stardust-phase, but with enough originality and country-wisdom to make this a unique and great song. In concerts, I guess, this one could be dragged out to ten minutes of length, made really bombastic and a great ending to any show. In between there is “This could change a million lives” as a personal highlight of mine, since DePrators and Huber’s wailing guitar-duelling sound like good, old Giant Sand, and that is a compliment I do not often share.
But also, a lot of compliments go to Dhyana-records (again), because once more they have proven that style and good ideas come way long before profit and sales-power of a record. The seven songs are all on one side of this vinyl-album, and the cover is silk-screened to the other side. Way to go, for the debut-country-record on Dhyana records. Together with William Elliott’s Withmore’s “Hymns for the hopeless” this is my favourite country-record at the beginning of 2004. I have listened to it almost every day now for some weeks and it has grown on me so much I started to play along on my guitar. Ain’t that something.
(from http://www.monochrom.at/cracked/reviews/Rev%20deprator.htm)
DEREK DE PRATOR
“from the hit motion picture”
Derek DePrator is an American folk / country-singer with a weird twist. For instance, he lets his dog speak on this record and one of his songs is called “Me and my Killer Dog”. He covers a song called “Alcohol of Fame” as a funny aside and then another cover, this time by “Thomas O. Huber”, which brings me to the question: how the heck do these guys know each other? DePrator will release a one-sided 12”album on Dhyana records soon (or maybe that has already happened), the where’s and how’s of which are enclouded in the same modern mystery as the whole man. He plays on the acoustic guitar, records directly to tape, talks a little inbetween and seems like an all-round good guy. Someone you’d like to have around during a garden party. Mainly because he can grab a guitar and play a song or three. Musically, I have heard better, but not everyone can be Howe Gelb. Especially while Howe is still alive. Derek DePrator definitely has a story worth telling and plays music worth listening to. Sometimes his stories are weird and edgy and hard to follow, and sometimes his music seems all too homemade and simple, but maybe that is the mystery of his art. Derek DePrator might just be some guy playing guitar, who by coincidence happens to have a weird sense of humour and a lot of talent. He might also be like Townes Van Zandt, and unfortunately nobody has yet discovered him. A country-story written by life.
(from http://www.monochrom.at/cracked/reviews/Rev%20ouzel%203inch.htm)
The Night Johnny Came To The Cash Machine
Derek DePrator: When The Train Left The Station
(12", Dhyana Records DHY 051, 2003)
(translated from german)
Right after releasing their jubilee cult compilation DHY050, there is already the next fetish object for vinyl fans: one sided pressing with a picture of the artist, "when the train left the station" from derek deprator of cleveland and his friends has seven songs, which dont really fit to the slogan "dhyana goes country". the songs show that there is lot more varitiy behind a label like country. there is all kinds of intesity on this record, from hippie-impro-excess(?) to punk-nihilism to blues, but all done in a way which you could call country. but you can also leave all labels behind and just open your ears and heart, then even country haters will find something that touches them. my song tip is the blues "this could change a million lives", a very deep cynical take on the emotional shortness of making music (on lyrical terms), like you cant find in this nakedness anywhere. the cool sounding ice blocks(?) from the guitar sounds are rubbing hard on each other, so that they catch flames. ice burns.
from http://www.gebrauchtemusik.de/magazin/kritik/deprator.html)
This latest release by delta blues/experimental guitar tinker, purveyor Derek Deprator slides through shades of sincerity and raw soul bruises. As Deprator’s last EP release, “Across the Country” was more melancholy; this document is much more reflective in nature. All songs were recorded live in Cleveland and Avon, Ohio. The desperation of these locations, deep in the flat blunt mean Midwest, comes through brightly in the songs. Instrumentals like “Pale Black Mist” capture heavenly contemplation in the curious flatness of Suburban hell. The layered guitars in the instrumental, “Art School Girls,” is the sound of gradual melting snow. It can be a rather a scary fact when white people attempt the blues, but in this case there is no hovering impulse to decapitate yourself after being subjected to Deprator. Derek comes across as the bastard spiritual cousin of Leadbelly and Peter Laughner. The vocals groan and the intense, emotional compaction of the songs comes careening through to the listener sober or not. When Derek growls “have you ever woke up in the morning with the blues,” he’s slabbing out the truth no matter how raw and bloody it may be. – Matthew Huck Proctor, Fresh Dirt Zine, 3/03.
Frantic alt-blues solo artist Derek DePrator bookends this seven-song CD with his arrangements of folk-blues material: "Mr. Tom Hughie's Town/Gallow's Pole" and "Quit Yr. Low-Down Ways." In between are his unfettered romps through the Delta tradition. This is the first release of new material from Derek DePrator in three years. (In the meantime he was playing guitar for Cobra Verde.) The collection of live (soundboard) and four-track recordings is a raw and primitive preview to upcoming releases through ELEET Tapes. – Tom “Tearaway” Schulte, Outsight online zine:(http://www.detroitmusic.com/outsight), 2/03.
Freaked, but pleasing acoustic scrawl with lyrical wit and common sense. – Mike Landucci, of Blackbean and Placenta Records, on Revenge Of The Introverts Vol. 1 7”, early ’99.
Show stealing wildman whose musicianship recalled the jagged edginess of Television's Tom Verlaine - Laura DeMarco, Cleveland Free Times 12/98.
Boombox confessions and nascient band workouts. The emotion here is seething with inner struggle and ultimate frustration. – Bryan Baker, GAJOOB Magazine 12/97.