Now here’s a man with a strange sort of blues. Paul Karapiperis, singer with Greek blues band Small Blues Trap, is on his second solo album with the release of “Somethin' Like Blues or Haunted Ballads” and he sets his scene like a man possessed by peculiar demons.
There’s reverb aplenty, harmonicas and guitars to paint the sonic picture of torment and a pseudo Beefheartian right angled poetry in what would have been called, in times past, the grooves. As “Try Another Time” spins its web of blue serge however, you come to realise that this album is most definitely more oddball than 12 bars in its nature. Perhaps it is the plethora of strange noises that creep around in the background almost oblivious to the direction of the songs or perhaps it is the growling diffidence of Paul Karapiperis’ voice that makes “Somethin' Like Blues or Haunted Ballads” something vaguely disturbing.
As such things go, very little of this album will appeal to the normal, notoriously unimaginative, blues fan. Fans of a more psychedelic music might however find it to their liking as will those whose tastes are altogether less catholic.
The album is available as a free download.