Casio City Rockers is the work of the multi-talented, multi-instrumentalist Brother Lee Skelly, ex of Discodor, and most recently of Inner Space Quartet. The 19 pieces represent the tip of an archival iceberg of ideas, and also demonstrate Lee’s incredible chops. Recorded at home, and on the move, on 4-tracks and mobile phones, basically wherever, however, when inspiration hits him, the set definitely sort of rocks and shocks like a super show reel. On the surface it might seem like Lee paying his respects to `60s and `70s library music. However, it’s much more than that. Jumping from genre to genre, it’s a joyful journey, that maps a broad and beautiful musical landscape. From Southern fried Chitlin circuit funk to spacey, synth-y Sci-Fi TV themes. Taking in slow, Muscle Shoals Country-got-soul, crazy conga’d Ray Barretto-esque Latin, complete with wild wah-wah axe licks, fusion flavours, and Blaxploitation scores, full of fine Fender Rhodes and electric basses buzzing. There are Hammond B-3 acid jazz grinds and flute-led brushed drum syncopation. Melodica moments. Crunchy Clavinet. Even a Bolan / Bowie bongo’d summery strum, and an Eno-esque ambient number. Everywhere there’s an electronic effervescence of vintage keys, Mellotron and Moog solos.

Two tunes, in particular, blew my mind. It’s All Around and Daredevil. Both have their fucking authentic, hippie freak flags flying high. The former, especially, channels The Beatles’ Tomorrow Never Knows. Like some lost psychedelic nugget, with sitar, tabla, backwards guitar, and treated vocals.

All the tracks are short, sure, but to call them sketches would be doing Brother Lee a serious disservice. Everything is meticulously, and lovingly, played and arranged. Despite most of it being laid down on the hoof, in hotel and motel rooms.

Brother Lee’s Casio City Rockers is out now, on Dime.