the keyboard choir - mizen head to gascanane sound
no i have no idea as to the reasons for the album title, and to be honest, it
matters not.
also, being honest, i was a little put off listening to this when i saw pictures
of the band all dressed up in homemade fancy dress costumes.
i mean really.
but then earlier this week i recalled my love for george clinton and his
love of costumes, so thought i should eradicate such innate snobbery and see if
the album worked better on the stereo as opposed to being hidden away in the
drawer.
and blow me down with a feather.
it’s a cracker.
ok, the combination of strange discomforting ambience, cut up vocals, and
varying degrees of distorted/treated electronic noise is not going to change the
direction of the coverage of the weekly music press or anything, but for just
less than an hour there are some rather interesting things going on
no real songs as such, no chord structures, just an ongoing drift of sounds and
effects.
opening with a drawn out mass of troubled samples, and a gloomy vibe, the
drone of the hearse couldn’t be better named, hip hop-esque drum loops make
it a rather interesting way to kick off proceedings, which is then compounded
upon by the distorted electro vibe of legal boards that adds some found vocals
and generally makes a hormonal nuisance of itself until a scary preacher and
church organ kidnap the listener into the depths of hell and damnation.
i’m sure the summer festival goers will love that blasting over the pa system on
a sunny afternoon.
the electronically enhanced layered atmospherics are maintained with little in
the way of light relief for most of the album, other than the gorgeous bleepy
orb-like bounce of put me down which proves that they do have moments of
fun and levity.
the fact that one track is titled skylab should give some indication as
to where the folks involved are heading, and if like me, you have a few
skylab records hidden away, then this homage to all things brian eno/john
carpenter will be rather welcome.
all in all, mizen head .. is a fascinating debut album, and one that
proves there are some folks wanting to make challenging ambient music that
doesn’t just subscribe to the for ubiquitous digital presets and a smiley
groove.
more detail : here