Cult Figures – Reports Of People / The Pillars Of Creation – Be Careful What You Wish For

Precious Recordings

Following on from two strong BBC session archive extractions for The Twinsets and Jetstream Pony that unlocked the 2026 cargo bay doors, for its springtime produce Precious Recordings has switched supply channels to parachuting in a batch of new releases.

Whilst a stream of freshly pressed 45s – from Helen Love, Blueboy and Bramwell – are appearing in one route plan, two distinctive new albums arrive via another which lean heavily into the reconstituted veterans wing of the enterprise. The latter are unpacked below.

First up then is a fresh studio platter from Cult Figures, a unit that initially surfaced in Birmingham during the post-punk epoch with two singles on Swell Maps’ Rather Records before being reactivated over the last decade or so with help from Gard du Nord Records and other outlets.

Whilst the pre-publicity marks out the quintet as “chroniclers of modern madness”, Reports Of People is a far more nuanced and diverse affair than it initially appears. Very much a gang effort, with frontman Fraser Gillespie’s garrulous presence enmeshed within integral background vocal combinations and a range of genre-straddling manoeuvres, the eleven gathered pieces engagingly stretch across places on the ragged to ruminative range.

Hence, we’re spun through the gritty yet harmony-topped opening (“Music Of Fear”); early Super Furry Animals-adjacent angles with surrealist storytelling (“The Abductee” and “Space Invader”); or a bitter relationship breakdown nodding to Prolapse’s occasionally melodic moments (“Death Of A Thousand Cuts”).

There’s also soaring yet sinewy indie-pop (“Legacy Hand” and “Scum”) to be found here; radiantly warm folk-rock wanderings (“Dangerous Boy”); stomping New York Dolls-dipped pre-punk (“Walking Disaster” and “Badly In Love”); and outright garage racket making (“Lunatic Friend”).

Whilst the stylistic switching – occasionally in the space of one song — can be a little dizzying at times, overall Reports Of People sits well under one inviting comradely canopy.

Sharing a degree of old hands construction and eclecticism, but with a looser, wider and more whimsical agenda, is Be Careful What You Wish For, the official debut long-player from The Pillars Of Creation.

The band is an extended super-group that has evolved out of the solo-billed ensemble assembled to support primary songwriter and lead vocalist Jim Shepherd (The Jasmine Minks), which features the likes of Dave Morgan (The Loft), Frank Sweeney (June Brides et al), Arash Torabi (also of June Brides), Ruth Tidmarsh (Alternative TV) and others.

Subtly ambitious in its internalised mid-fi sprawl, across its eight tracks over forty-three minutes, the record extends upon as well as eschews the past lives of Shepherd and his compadres as it cooks up a historically familiar – yet inverted — stew of sounds.

Consequently, the prologuing title-track begins proceedings delightfully as a balmy brass-topped amalgam of Rubber Soul-to-White Album-era country-folk-baroque Paul McCartneyisms. Such are its upfront outrider charms, the collection’s ensuing cuts ultimately don’t manage to surpass it, but there remain plenty of genre-bending curiosities that merit attention and affection elsewhere.

Therefore, further highlights along come through lower-tech galaxy-gazing nods to The Flaming Lips circa The Soft Bulletin (“One Way Home”); woozy Aladdin Sane-meets-Dark Side Of The Moon astral-glam hybridising (“Strange Kind Of Lovin’” and “The Sea”); and an enjoyably epic near-sixteen-minute multi-part pastoral prog pop odyssey (“Bluebird”).

Although Be Careful What You Wish For won’t go the full distance for those needing something more compact and finessed from the cast of its characters, it’s hard not to be impressed by the infectious spirit of the freewheeling yet crafted escapades contained within.

-Adrian-