Coley Park
★★★
Devil Tree
BIG POTATO. CD/DL/LP
Country-fried gem from the home counties; co-produced by Slowdive’s Neil Halstead.
Coley Park named themselves after a suburb of Reading, but fortunately set their sights higher. As US trade mag The Gavin Report launched the first Americana chart in 1995, a little pocket opened in the town, spearheaded by Neil Halstead who formed Mojave 3 after the demise of shoegazers Slowdive. His friends Nick Holton and Nick Portnell both guested on Mojave 3 records, and when they formed Coley Park, Halstead co-produced this, the quartet’s second LP from 2004 (following a 2003 mini-LP) – originally titled Down At The Devilin’ Tree.