Reviews August 2010

Timber Timbre - Demon Host (Single)

Timber Timbre are a bluesy Canadian acoustic folk band, and Demon Host is their first single to be released in the UK.
It's a dark, eerie, somewhat macabre confessional tale, driven almost entirely by one acoustic guitar and voice, with a touch of chiming piano and choir-like additional voices towards the end. The song appears to be a lament over a life full of regret and unheeded warnings and is riddled with the chilly fear of a man waiting for his inevitable damnation. Mood-wise it has much in common with Robert Johnson's work (e.g.Hellhound On My Trail ). Lyrical images of death, churches, futile repenting and forthcoming demons augment its haunting melody, and singer/guitarist Taylor Kirk's delivery is pitched just right to maximise the effect.
****

French for Cartridge - Liquorice
French For Cartridge is a London-based male/female duo 'formed as an attempt to create atonal pop music whilst at Goldsmiths' which has received fawning reviews from the likes of Artrocker magazine.
Musically, it's a quirky mixed bag of oompah-beat pop songs (Oooh!, Sitting and Reading) samey mood pieces, (A Hundred and One, Two Feet in The Water) breezy yet plodding pop-rock (Loosening The Structures, Picture Negative) or various combinations of the aforementioned styles. Several of the tracks manage to create a pleasant ambience, but there is little expressive melodic quality as the lyrics are generally abstracted from the mood of the melodies. Twice as Nice, for example, is a sarcastice swipe at Hollwood-style image-obsession and and consumerism, yet has an utterly inappropriate saccharine melody. It simply doesn't work, even ironically.
Liquorice thus shares the same musical problems as many art-rock recordings. It sounds as if French for Cartridge take lyrical ideas and then set them to music. Really, this shouldn't be so blatantly apparent as the songwriter's gift is surely in the ability to marry melody and lyric into a seamless whole that is more than the sum of its parts. Without this, music may an interesting (in an abstract way, as Liquorice is in its blend of styles), but it could never be moving.
I'm not impressed by the lyrics either. In several of the songs they are impenetrably vague. Here's an example from A Hundred And One - 'allagretto -allegory -alleluia -allez Marie - alphabet -alphabet-alphabet-alphabet- alphabet-alphabet-alphabet -alphabet -also- alphabet'. Hmm.
In other places they seem to have fallen straight into the Noel Gallagher Don't Believe The Truth/Definitely Maybe/Slowly walking down the hall faster than a cannonball trap of confusing contradiction with depth. In Loosening The Structures we have 'complex, subtle too/even when it's seemingly simple and confused.' In TV Dinners we have 'Broken Ribs/All is well'. You could argue a coherent meaning for both, of course, but it would have to be an argument.
Liquorice left me cold and confused. Or is that hot and bothered as I understood it only too well?
*

Josephine Foster & The Victor Herrero Band - Anda Jaleo

Anda Jaleo is a collection of Spanish folk songs by Federico Garcia Lorca that were banned by Franco and have now been arranged and released by Josephine Foster & The Vistor Herrero band who are about to embark upon a European tour to support the album.
The entire album is gloriously earthy-sounding - it's exactly what you would hope for - a whirl of dramatically strummed nylon-stringed Spanish guitars, castanets and a dash of harmonica here and there. The vocals are all performed in the original Spanish.yet come accompanied by handy English translations. If you had told me that Josephine Foster was the greatest living Spanish folk songer I'd have believed you. Her voice is utterly convincing and captivating as she guides us through an odyssey of joy, woe and danger with Lorca's tales of adventure, romance, bull fighters and beautiful gypsy women. Great stuff.
****

Sleigh Bells - Treats

Sleigh Bells are a Brooklyn electro-pop duo with bottomless resources of ear-candy hooks.
Treats is a delightful and wildly oscillating genre-straddling joyride. It is extremely rare that such disparate influences are distilled into a coherent, effective and original direction. Vicious guitar lines and brutal beats sit together in perfect harmony with gentler melodies as chant-like female vocals scat over groovy stomps underscored by endlessly inventive guitar/synth lines and counter-melodies. There is an chaotic and futuristic quality to many of the tracks (Crown On the Ground, Tell 'Em) and a breezy retro pop feel to others (Rill Rill). It works so well as all is informed by an unswerving and masterful musicality. The beats, instrumental lines and melodies are carefully plotted, making for a satisfying cohesive whole where every aspect combines to make each track more than the sum of its parts.
Treats is continually (and very nearly continuously) entertaining. It's joyous, innovative and unique.
****

Mount Kimbie- Crooks and Lovers

Mount Kimbie are a Dutch experimental post dubstep duo who set up a drum machine, hold down keys on keyboards and add chopped-up vocal loops over the top.
Each track is a beat-driven soundscape devoid of any form of traditional songcraft, where a range of different notes/sounds/effects have been put through a sonic blender. It may, therefore, be missing the point to judge Mount Kimble by any traditional criteria as they seem utterly unconcerned by expressive narrative.
It is certainly experimental, yet throwing everything you have in your fridge into a food processor doesn't require any culinary skill, and although the results would be innovative in a sense it could hardly be considered a contribution to cuisine. There is a meaningful difference between doing something unique and creating something innovative and progressive. I have the impression that any moments in Crooks and Lovers with any semblance of expression is utter fluke and it is difficult to see what they are attempting to acheive. I found it directionless - and tedious.
*