LEE BABY SIMMS
The Escapist (Substance Records)
Reviewed by Shaun Dale

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Who is Lee Baby Simms? Could this really be the fabled AM pop jock, whose career took him from WPOP in Connecticut to KRLA in Los Angeles, with stops at just about every call sign in between? Or might this be the German groovemeister who appropriates his name? Just some random Tom Waits fan that remembers his role in Down By Law? A literature fan that caught a passing reference in a Salman Rushdie novel?

There are many mysteries surrounding Lee Baby Simms, and the origin of this album is one of the lesser ones. The accomplishment here is pretty significant, though. Spacey, minimalist instrumentals provide the soundscape for a film noir that was never filmed.

It's a late night, low lights kind of album, perhaps best appreciated under the influence of a cerebral lubricant of some kind, but it hangs together very well and provides as many launching points for your imagination as the Lee Baby Sims legend itself.

Track List:

Pathos * Khat * Cluseau * Down By Law * Lazy & Cruel * Green * Shhhh * Buzz * Curtom * The Stopper * Get It Together * Astor * Creamsicle * Twelve

© 2003 - Shaun Dale