Falling Autumn leaves, a touch of dust from a child's grave, a long line of Storytellers and the grit of the 'Black Country.'
Profile
Influences
The Sun, the Moon and the Stars but mostly the gutter and a cheap bottle of red wine
Sounds Like
‘Chilling yet exciting! Made me feel as though I was sitting talking to a stranger in a continental tavern whilst he told me of his past dealings with the unknown.'
Claire & Sally
WRAPPED IN PLASTIC
'Brecht meets Nick Cave meets the Chanson tradition.'
N. Parkes
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<'The Tallyman’s Dark Omnibus- ‘… no longer so lonely.’ - A Review
'If cities were sapient they would be psychotic. Every second they are different, yet they remain oppressively the same. They are larger than us, yet they are made up of us. Made up of millions of cells/parasites trying to survive and trying to tell their own story every day.
The Tallyman's dark OMNIBUS is one man, Tal E. Shaanti. Hailing from Britain's "Black Country" he exudes a gritty personality on the CD "... no longer so lonely". The pollution of the air seems to have worked it's way into his heart. Not that's he's happy about it, on this recording he seems desperate to sing out light. He's hunting for hope in grim urban landscapes and in himself.
An omnibus is a collection of things or a form of mass transportation. Understanding this album (also meaning a collection of things) is like trying to understand a complete story by only reading fragments of chapters. Or better yet, like trying to see a whole movie based on scenes that you see as you fly by them on a bus. This recording is like a guided tour of mundane madness and petty evil with a guide who keeps nodding off. The end result is fragmented: there's a circus flourish to start, indictment of middle class callousness here, a ghost story there, synthesizers roll on one song, accordion on another. Fragmented yet intriguing. You know that there's a dead girl at the heart of this, but she is one girl or many? What's more important one dead person or all the indifference to death they represent?
Shaanti doesn't have vocal strength of Nick Cave or the epic quality of Bertolt Brecht but he comes from the same purgatorial side of life as they do. Stories come easy in this twilight realm, how could you see what they've seen and not want to tell? Tal is at his best when he tells more than sings. "... no longer so lonely" is best when it feels like a soundtrack to a intimate play. On it's best moments this CD flirts with us trying to get us to sit and experience the entire show. But it's just a come on. Like trying to get to know someone who's drunk at a bar. You'll never get the full story only bits and drams, you'll get those pieces of their life either carefully filtered or impossible to restrain.
"... no longer so lonely" is like that, incomplete but better for it. You'll come back to try and decipher the whole story. To try and see the whole movie in one opening of your eyes, to try and watch the play when all of the action happens at once. Like a city, you could live here for years and not understand all of it but still it all feels familiar. Like the city, this is a landscape where children should not walk around by themselves.
This is Tal E. Shaanti's story and only he could tell quite like this.'
Sepiachord Magazine (USA) Review January 10th, 2008
http://www.sepiachord.com/tally.htm
LIVE 2008-
The Halfmoon (Herne Hill) London- May 30th
The Ballroom, Stockwell, London- June 20th
The Halfmoon (Putney), London- August 24th
The Fiddler's Elbow, Camden, London- September 12th
Spangled Cabaret@The Rio Cafe, Glasgow- November 3rd
Playing Volpone in Ben Jonson's Volpone: The Fox,' Birmingham - November 8th -15th, '08
Collabaration/co-writer song producer/musician: 'Sandwell Women's Aid,' W. Brom - December 9th, '08
Photgrapher for meowsic photography in assoc with Mumtaz Arts: 'Last Sunsets of Winter/Vernal Equninox,' Avebury & Uffington - March 20th, '09
Acting- Playing 'Gambler,' in the british Feature Film- 'Coffee,' filming- Nottingham, May '09- Release- 2010
To purchase '... no longer so lonely,' by the Tallyman's dark OMNIBUS- (£12 inc 1st Class Rec Delivery) Please click on the 'Buy Now' below (if you wish to order from outside the UK please contact us first)
‘A deep sense of loss haunts these performances. When I got home I thanked god for all those I love.'Yvonne MeggsSplash Magazine
Following in a long line of storyteller-musical performers like Tom Waits, Alex Harvey and Nick Cave, the performances of the Tallyman’s dark OMNIBUS have attracted considerable attention. Masked and performing within the audience, the Tallyman bear witness to world which is a nice place to visit but one wouldn’t want to stay for too long in!
The Tallyman’s dark OMNIBUS’ critically acclaimed debut album- ‘… no longer so lonely,’ is a tally of songs about the murdered, murdering, abused, dispossessed and generally ordinary everyday folk of his world. Some autobiographical whilst others observed, the Tallyman’s songs disturb and delight in equal measure. Everyone join’s in on ‘Fuck’em All!’ feels the loss of ‘The Cast Adrift,’ mourns ‘The Café on the Corner,’ and sympathises with the suicide pilot in ‘The Bombardier.’ Then he slips back into oblivion leaving the listener with echoing call of an Italian Whore somewhere in the brothels of Sicily.
Criss-crossing the UK & Europe in a battered Citroen known only as ‘Kiki,’ the Tallyman skilfully avoids the death threats and curses of those less talented souls to bring his unique show to you, your town, your home, your children, your dreams. All must pay the Tallyman.Thank God? Thank God indeed!
the Tallyman’s dark OMNIBUS's Friend Space (Top 32)
Voltaire: Dead Swans: Animus Nichols Family Gospel Hour: The Faithless Man ECPE: Don't this Road Look Rough and Rocky They Might Be Giants: Dinner Bell Golden Robot Army: The Hi-Life Split Lip Rayfield: Tennessee Nicki Jaine: Amsterdam Tallyman's Dark OMNIBUS: The Children Playing in the Cemetary Kim Vermillion: Hurts Like Hell Ex Reverie: Clouds? or Smoke? Jo Gabriel: Yorga's Songs of Hunting Paul Cebar & the Milwaukeeans: Can't Sit Down Fern Knight: Hawk Mountain Orion Rigel Dommisse: A Faceless Death White Stripes: Prickly Thorn, but Sweetly Worn Squirrel Nut Zippers: It Ain't You Brownie McGhee: Betty and Dupree Magnificent Seven: The Last Waltz Quiltman: Weendigo Myth DeVotchka: I Cried Like a Silly Boy The Choir Practice: I See Things Vermillion Lies: Long Red Hair Make a Rising: Transmutation Black Heart Procession: Tropics of Love Damon Albarn & Michael Nyman: Trek to the Cave Orchards: My Song, My Spell (My Prayer, My Pen) Ilya E Monosov: Ms Desolate Camper Van Beethoven: Light from a Cake Walter Sickert & the Army of Broken Toys: feather 16 Horsepower: Sinnerman
He's bricked up the doorway With tainted parts of his anatomy Lie still, like he wants you to Let him saw his disease in you Something dirty, something dirty Mom will forget what she won't see But when you deliver what will grow big Wait for him and feed the pigs
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