The All Seeing I is an obscure music project from the town Sheffield, and its existence is really due to the honor and being proud of one's town. The feeling here is a group of musicians who asked for volunteers to help out on Sheffield Proud Day. The good thing is that Sheffield is very rich in talent, and therefore you have the Human League's Phil Oakey, Tony Christie (the Jack Jones of Sheffield, and that's a compliment), the electro-DJ- team All Seeing I, with Sheffield's leading citizen of 1999, Jarvis Cocker of Pulp.
The All Seeing I is the foundation for this album, and pretty much wrote most of the music with Jarvis writing the lyrics. There is also a cover of Sonny Bono's great "The Beat Goes On," and the other vocalists Lisa Millett, Steve Edwards are also very much part of the Sheffield world. In a sense, this album is an aural documentary on Sheffield the city and its culture. It is also a great album.
Jarvis Cocker is the chief reason why I purchased this CD, and I was intrigued that he wrote a song for Phil Oakey to sing, "1st Man in Space" which sounds more like Human League than any thing else. Which is fantastic. Human League is very much a band that is clearly from Sheffield. It's outer space music, and sort of treat their home town as if it was a city on another planet. A great technique to write about one's world, as something outer-worldly. Cocker at times appears to be an alien as well, but one who was grounded by the city's character. Which comes to Tony Christie, who is obscure, underrated, and fantastic. His songs on the album "Happy Birthday Nicola," "Stars on Sunday," and the single from the album "Walk Like A Panther" are brilliant. Christie has that lounge aesthetic but with something extra. Perhaps hooking up with these misfits has given Christie a unique edge. "Pickled Eggs & Sherbet" is a great one-off project, and for me, puts Sheffield into my consciousness, just like Hollywood or vintage Manhattan.
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