Paul Roland With The Hellfire Club - A Cabinet Of Curiosities (1987)

“Paul Roland (born 1959 in Kent, England), ‘England’s psych-pop guru’, must surely qualify as unique amongst cult independent recording artists. Not only is his quintessentially English music alive with 19th century literary references and characters that would not be out of place in the pages of writers as Edgar Allan Poe, Peake, Charles Dickens, H.G. Wells or H.P. Lovecraft, but he is also a serious literary figure in his own right. His preoccupation with the supernatural takes an often whimsical slant in his lyrics. The fanciful and macabre subject matter of Roland’s songs and the baroque styled instrumentation he favours are no doubt partly the reason why he has not achieved the popularity of his contemporaries such as Robyn Hitchcock (who called Roland ‘the male Kate Bush’), but his distinctive style has ensured a loyal cult following in Europe if not in England. The acoustic based mini-album ‘A Cabinet Of Curiosities' (1987) with stories of eccentric characters that might have been written by H.G. Wells, M.R. James and Jules Verne is set to music that invites comparison with the best early work of Al Stewart, Marc Bolan and Syd Barrett.” (From Wikipedia).

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