Rescuing qualities such as 'good playing' from critical hell, Dan Bejar's band serve up a feast of unironic 80s fetishism
Hometown: Vancouver.
The lineup: Dan Bejar (vocals, instruments).
The background: We got ticked off the other week when we trailed Destroyer for the next day's new band by an attentive reader who informed us that they were anything but new and so, chastened, we decided not to do them. But we've changed our minds because a) we're nearly a thousand days old and it's our prerogative, b) about 11 people in the UK will have heard of them (it's actually a him, about which, more in a sec) and c) the record is great and we really wanted to tell you about it.
The album is called Kaputt and, basically, if you liked last year's Relayted by Gayngs, you'll want to check it out. Destroyer ? basically, Dan Bejar of New Pornographers plus friends ? would appear to be engaged in a similar attempt to rescue such reviled qualities as classiness and "good playing" from critical hell. We have noticed similar moves this year from Toro Y Moi and the amazing Jensen Sportag. If we didn't know any better we'd call this a movement.
Steely Dan circa Gaucho. The Roxy Music of Avalon. Sade's Diamond Life. These are the early-80s albums whose sonic luxury has been invoked in discussing Kaputt. We don't quite detect those levels of studio sophistication and pristine perfectionism here, but certainly if you've been listening to Girls and Hunx and his Punx of late, the music on Kaputt will indeed sound opulent and polished. There are saxophone flourishes aplenty, the bass would appear to be fretless, and generally there is the air of a room full of musicians with rolled-up jacket sleeves and the kind of orgiastic grimaces that suggest they are soloing their way into a sexual frenzy.
Kaputt is rife with allusions both lyrical and musical. More than anything 80s, opener Chinatown makes us think of Al Stewart's Year of the Cat. Blue Eyes, on the other hand, couldn't be more 1982/3-specific with its references to New Order and Yello's You Gotta Say Yes to Another Excess, and the Flesh of My Flesh-era Orange Juice white funk, Afrodiziak-style backing vocals and Haircut 100-circa-Fantastic Day sax. On Savage Night At the Opera Bejar hums the melody to New Order's Age of Consent. Suicide Demo for Kara Walker is not quite in the Dan league of surface-deep shimmer but it did get us thinking of Phil Collins's In the Air Tonight and Dire Straits' Private Investigations with its guitar figures ? we want to say filigrees ? and washes of keyboard ? very 1983. And there's a flute, the instrument that more than any other says: "We want to distance ourselves from the grubby rock milieu" (with the possible exception of the recorder).
More than anything or anyone, Bejar and Destroyer remind us of Laurence from Felt whose 90s project, Denim, was a feast of unironic period fetishism. We're not sure what the point of all this is, but we love the attention to detail and longing for a bygone age. On the title track, Bejar even recites a list of his favourite music papers ("Sounds, Smash Hits, Melody Maker and NME all sound like a dream to me"), for which, all credit must go to him for making writing for mostly long-defunct publications ? for a pittance, in conditions that can only be described as squalid ? seem like the most glamorous job imaginable.
The buzz: "Kaputt's mix of slinky soft-rock and 80s-style art-disco is unexpected, at least" ? avclub.com.
The truth: Somewhere, Kenny G and Chuck Mangione are smiling.
Most likely to: Sound the resurrection of the muso.
Least likely to: Resurrect Sounds.
What to buy: Kaputt is released by Dead Oceans in June.
File next to: Gayngs, Orange Juice, Jensen Sportag, Denim.
Links: mergerecords.com/artists/destroyer.
Monday's new band: Tim and Jean.
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2011/apr/01/new-band-destroyer
Brittany Murphy Britney Spears Amanda Swisten Scarlett Chorvat Kim Smith
No comments:
Post a Comment