Cleaners From Venus – 20 Golden Cleaners (Tangerine Records)

Twenty protuberant tracks from the now defunct Cleaners (Martin Newell and Lol Elliot) and a chronological history ranging from the obscure early days through to their obscure demise and did anyone bat an eyelid?

The Cleaners occupy a 1960s middle-ground commune west of Bath, somewhere between The Kinks and Syd Barret. Song titles like ’Illya Kuryakin Looked At Me’, ‘Johnny The Moondog Is Dead’ and ‘I Was A Teenager Idiot Dancer’ and you may start thinking these people may not take life too seriously.

The lyrics of singer Martin Newell proves that there really is a thin line between the sublime and the ridiculous. The booklet with the CD gives an amusing background to each track and a glimpse into the English whimsy and slightly eccentric world of The Cleaners.

Martin Newell’s first solo LP ‘The Greatest Living Englishman’ is out in a month or two and is produced by  probably the second greatest living Englishman, XTC’s Andy Partridge. 8/10
Ian Crowley