ART ROCK
CHRIS ROBERTS samples the new releases on the prog/rock boundary.
In 2003 Paddy McAloon made one of the most unique, beautiful records Britain’s ever produced. You might not normally link the classic songcraft and lyricism of Durham’s deftest with prog, but this was something else; epic and eccentric. McAloon’s health problems at the time meant that, almost blind, he couldn’t write music as he’d like. Sleepless, he became fascinated by late-night radio call-ins and began cutting up taped voices, layering them across a primitive computerised score. This was then played by an actual orchestra, and the “script” honed. The sum was emotionally greater than its parts.
Over sad, keening strings and radio interference a woman recites lines like ‘the ghost of a chance’ on what became the 22-minute title track of I Trawl The Megahertz (Sony). It’s now reissued under the Prefab Sprout band name, which feels right. If you have the capacity to feel anything whatsoever, this cathartic cult classic will burrow it out.
Feelings are also induced by the voice of A Girl Called Eddy, who soon releases her first album in 14 years. First comes her collaboration with Frenchman Mehdi Zannad (aka FUGU) as The Last Detail. Their eponymous debut (Elefant) evokes Dusty Springfield fronting the moment when classic pop embraced weird ideas: late 60s Bee Gees, Love. Featuring members of Tame Impala and Syd Matters, it whets the appetite nicely for Eddy’s return.
Ed Harcourt’s exquisite Beyond The End (Point Of Departure) sees the gifted singersongwriter and Marianne Faithfull collaborator eschewing vocals to create pensive, wintry piano-based instrumentals which might score imaginary films. Also mining hauntology are Dean Wareham vs Cheval Sombre, whose self-titled alliance (Double Feature) has the Luna/Galaxie 500 legend and his favourite one-man-band covering Dylan and Lee Marvin (Wand’rin’ Star) in what sounds like a woozy Tramadol haze.
US duo Pavo Pavo cite Bergman and Hockney as influences, and that incongruous contrast of dark and bright gels as they blend experimental and pop streams on seductive second album Mystery Hour (Bella Union). It’s accessible but turbulent; smooth but histrionic. Norma’s Female Jungle (Shortcuts) is literate and passionate, the returningfrom-long-hiatus Frenchwoman’s voice and whatever-works styles warm in feel but often pointed in imagery (Hysterical Wife).
Mexican duo Lorelle Meets The Obsolete’s fifth album De Facto (Sonic Cathedral), their first wholly in Spanish, reins in the raw guitar edges (sometimes) to water the seeds of something more searching, while Brooklyn duo Buke & Gase, championed by The National and Laurie Anderson, display on Scholars (Brassland) that they can chug like Can and float like Talk Talk. Strange frequencies flourish.