If you’re not familiar with the music of Jason How, now is a very good time to find out.

Eight albums deep and a firm favourite of critics (Vive Le Rock, Louder Than War and many others have glowingly reviewed all of them!), How is one of the country’s best-kept secrets and a musical treasure trove of discovery. Guys like Jason don’t seem to exist very much in the modern world nowadays; that is, people who value songs with choruses and lyrics and clever arrangements with 12 string guitars and jangling, water-falling chords and that bear no real relation to the stuff you’ll hear on mainstream radio. If you remember the first time you heard Robyn Hitchcock or XTC or The Jam or Syd Barrett with fondness, Jason how is very much the musician you want to hear. The classic English eccentric is something that’s been lost to the music world in recent times and it’s massively refreshing to hear a set of songs that are as carefree, lovelorn and downright timeless as some of Jason How’s releases. There are hints of Brit-psychedelia, pop classicism, new wave quirk and punky energy although the signature song writing craft remains a constant.

As head honcho at Rotosound Music Strings, Jason runs one of the U.K.’s longest established companies; his father James set the company up in the late fifties and provided strings for all of the major players in British music and continue to do so to this day; The Who, Jimmy Page, Jimi Hendrix, Pink Floyd and Queen right through to The Damned and The Jam in the late seventies used and endorsed Rotosound. In modern times, Duff McKagen of Gn’R, the Seattle grunge scene up to Paul Allender (Cradle Of Filth) and Mikey Demus (Skindred) are all Rotosound players. The company goes from strength to strength and remains steadfastly a most British institution.

Joe Whyte (Vive Le Rock magazine)