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We haven’t seen a finished copy of this ultra limited 500 only compilation release but we have heard it looks rather spiffing stuff. The ‘Binary Oppositions’ set is a 21 track compilation released to tie in with an art exhibition currently on show until January in Brescia, Northern Italy. Featuring the work of 10 emerging artists based in Birmingham the exhibition is designed to show the working of a ‘lo-fi culture in a hi-fi world’ through mediums such handcrafts, drawings, photography, film and animation. In essence the compilation and art exhibition are an attempt to showcase the ‘symbiotic pact between audio and visual art forms’ and is lavishly housed in packaging designed by the Outcrowd Collectives Ben Javens.
On the CD you’ll find a whole host of tasty tunes from the usual crowd of suspects from the Static Caravan stables - Shady Bard, Young Baron, Mike in Mono and Modified Toy Orchestra as well as some familiar old friends - Magnetophone, Broadcast and Pram and some not so just yet (but they will be shortly) - Arcade, Susan Dillane, Helena Gough and Kate Goes.
The set offers a beautifully free flowing montage of mood evoking sounds (Pram’s deliciously textured down tempo ether emitting ethnic collages on ‘city of eels’) mixing as it does elements of folk, soft psyche (check the sweetly glazed and arresting princely pop of the daydreaming ‘Torch’ by Seeland), abstract minimalism (none more so than on Helena Gough’s ‘elemental’ which opens the set - a brief but curiously magnified ambient canvas of inner space proportions featuring twittering binary communications, aquatic trippyness and alien drone squalls) and lilting sheens of electronica (seek out the calculator pop of Mike in Mono’s Kraftwerk meets New Musik-esque ‘almost unreachable’) that makes singling out the cherry tipped moments of the set all that much harder to separate - though cherry tipped moments it is.
Woodbine‘s Sarah Dillane steps up with the sleekly enchanting ‘Uninvited Mole’, this softly measured beauty with its slow but achingly unfurling reverberating riffs spectral romances with an air of mercurial mystery upon which Dillane’s simply seductive intones caress apparition like to sit somewhere between Nancy Sinatra and Nico.
Elsewhere there’s the dippy almost childlike sweetness of KateGoes maddeningly wonky and loveable ‘heartbeat’ - are these the bastard offspring of Vivian Stanshall we wonder, obviously inspired by Fischer Price, soft toys, jellies and cream and er - Stereolab, really how could you resist this daft and delicious ditty - a video for the positively barking ‘down the rabbit hole’ awaits or should we say lurks on their my space site - we’ll just say it involves dressing up as woodland creatures - nuff said eh? Also check out the ’Double Deckers’ meets the Shaggs effervescent pop of ’Yo Yo’.
‘Chelmsley Wood’ by Arcade - better known to friends and acquaintances as Gary Judge - appears to have adopted the old Eric Morecambe premise when hauled up by an aggrieved Andrew Preview (Andre Previn) for playing the wrong notes he’s found retorting ’I’m playing all the right notes but not necessarily in the right order’ - so to Arcade’s appreciation of Vangelis and Sky gets a little skewiff on initial plays until you realise the workmanlike classical curvature of the futuristic Brontean canters indeed rather more nods appreciably in the direction of later career FortDax.
Previously unknown (though we suspect that won’t be for too much longer) to us Birmingham’s Betty and the ID are a curious dish, their ‘heath of kings’ with its mind expanding montages and early 70’s styled lounge like psychedelics deliciously festooned with slashing chimes, willowing lunatic suites and flute motifs sounds to these ears like a pastoral L’Augmentation - though we do suggest you quickly hook up to their myspace site and check out the mind arranging Move meets Barrett-esque English psychedelics of their wig flippingly lysergic ‘last night dreaming’.
Its hard to imagine a band more touched with a sense of lunacy than Misty’s Big Adventure - they wilfully tear up the recipe book of pop in their search for that defining unique sound and have along the way despatched three full lengths that inwardly reveal a latent pop prowess at work all scarred with a doing your head in nagging cleverness that has you wondering exactly why don’t they feature more often in the music press to regaling words normally set aside for the coming seasons in crowd. I’ll tell you why it’s because their to bloody clever for their own good - the current ‘Funny Times’ set is a stripped to the basics lo-fi gem that initially I’ll admit had us a tad disappointed on first hearing, totally contrasting with their previous opus ‘Black Hole’ and so lost o the pop buzz that was present on the pre cursor ’fashion parade’ single - but then ’sitting on your doorstep’ hit home and all was well. Two releases here see the polar opposites of the Misty brain in operation - ’uncle scary’s birthday party’ sees Grandmaster Gareth (Misty head man) concocting a chaotically bastardised and discordantly surreal music hall meets jagged jazz pummelled by freebasing and scalding noise core mash up with what sounds like fox hunting clarion calls while ’the long conveyor belt’ culled from the Misty’s aforementioned ’funny times’ set is a dinky Sunday morning village parade of wonky sun drenched bliss.
Shady Bard - what can we say about this lot that we haven’t already committed to print to date, frankly I’d be hard pushed to think of many bands that warm the heart and make listening to music such an engaging pastime - they have been one of the revelations of the year (and last year for that matter), they’ve made the art of the beautifully bleak their own with their slender caricatures and disquietingly caressing epitaphs to nature, never a dry eye in the house when the ‘Bard are bewitching the turntable - and so to with ’long term solutions to the seagull problem’ this chestnuts roasting on the fireside spot of homeliness quietly crushes you from the inside with its delicately spun fragile and spiritual glow - think of a snow swept tearful Low.
Please, please, please - will someone put me out of my misery and tell me where the melodic thread that attaches to Young Baron’s ‘musical box’ has been sourced - its driving me to distraction - I know the blighter - and its obvious I know - but can I recall it to mind - no. Its been the cause of too many sleepless nights - so why oh why do I keep thinking it has a Terry Hall connection to it. Please end it someone. Anyhow Young Baron is the melodic nom de plume of Matt Price who incidentally is curating the Binary Opposites exhibition, as the title suggests a twinkling music box pirouette replete with heavenly choirs and delivered up in the kind of chicly styled svelte sophistication that frankly ought to leave you breathless.
Much admired here the mysterious collective known as Dreams of Tall Buildings grace the compilation with a deeply engaging sound collage in the shape of monastic ‘the shortest day’ - more together and accessible than their usual outings though still wrapped with that tendency to scare the living shit out of you - a lights on listening experience.
As for the excellently named the Decapitated Barbershop - can we just say ’TV Times’ is worrying in a way that only Volcano the Bear ever seem to be - think Goons meets Captain Pugwash upon the set of that Vincent Price film where he‘s killing all the critics of his Shakespearean performances notably the Robert Morley bit here they have him eat the puppy pie - weird yet we want more.
All said and done though nothing quite compares to Micronormous’ ‘sadhana’ - a gorgeously swirling suite of trippily laden string swept symphonics that imagines Momus, Remington Super 60, Edwin Moses and Emperor Penguin locked in a studio under the watchful eye of John Barry carving out sounds of exotic seduction.
Perfect.
www.staticcaravan.org
MARK BARTON
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