I On U

This is the Voice of Penelope Cruisecontrol is the second release from North Carolina instrumentalist Mike Nicholson under the guise of Penelope Cruisecontrol. As one half of the songwriting team and guitarist for the rock band Stratocruiser, Mike has written dozens of songs over the last ten years and Penelope Cruisecontrol’s debut was made up instrumental tracks not used by Stratocruiser as they often sat outside that band’s pop-rock dogma or were simply experiments that were exorcised from Mike’s muse.

This is the Voice of Penelope Cruisecontrol is the first collection of tunes written especially for the Penelope Cruisecontrol brand name.

Emotionally this was a hard record to finish. The drummer for Penelope Cruisecontrol, Matt Brown, suddenly passed away on April 25, 2012 while Mike was still writing and culling tracks for this record. Many of the tracks were recorded before Matt passed but the rest were assembled with the magic wizardry of loops and clips of Matt’s playing as well as some slight-of-hand sequencing in Pro Tools by Mike.

This is the Voice is a completely instrumental rock record that, unlike many other non-vocal recordings, is about the songs themselves. Like all great contemporary music, each song contains catchy hooks welded into the music and a minimum of indulgent noodling and superfluous instrumental grandstanding. Each song is titled with some sort of thought in mind of the author whether it’s military history, British TV shows from the 1960’s, Game of Thrones, American Football or 18th century naval heroes.

The opening track “Watashi Wa” features a sample of General Hideki Tojo, the Japanese commander of the imperial Army. “Geli” is named for Geli Raubal, Hitler’s cousin and possible mistress from before he seized power in Germany. “Westeros” is an improvised 12 string guitar meditation that deviates from the tightly written songs of the rest of this collection. Expanded into an epic with several “movements” and sections, “Westeros” is the Penelope Cruisecontrol nod to Mike’s prog rock obsessions. “Bonhomme Richard” is the name of British/American naval hero John Paul Jones’ most famous ship from the peak of his naval career.

Make no mistake, This is the Voice of Penelope Cruisecontrol is a recording full of guitar-based rock even though Mike plays organ, mellotron, synthesizers, bass, mandolin and other handy musical tools. Mike was (is?... they have never really split) a member of the seminal surf-moderne quartet The X-Rayons (featuring famous amp maker to the stars Steve Carr) as well a guitarist gun-for-hire for the studio he owns and operates near Chapel Hill in a edition to doing a stint as Grant Hart’s (Hüsker Dü) lead guitar player for a US tour. Mike blends rocking bluesy guitar phrases laced with hints of rockabilly, surf, country, janglepop and even blistering metallic tones from his collection of goofy Asian guitars played through warmly glowing tube amplifiers.

This is the Voice of Penelope Cruisecontrol is a record for lovers of great songs and great performances whether they require vocals or not.