Carousel

admin — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 17:05:00 +0000

It is hard to imagine Robin Guthrie’s music without the accompanying voice of his former better half, Elizabeth Fraser. Her vocal styling, a combination of mouth music and abstract lyrics, became a trademark of the Cocteau Twins and left a distinctive quality that remains even if she works with other musicians. Case in point was her 2003 collaboration with French avant garde artist Yann Tiersen from the album Les Retrouvailles.

However, it is a shame that many, including yours truly, often overlook Guthrie’s unique genius—not because he is a man overpowering Fraser, who admitted in an interview in 1996 that her over-dependence on Guthrie was her downfall, but simply because his talent overshadows his post-Cocteau efforts. The loquacious Guthrie is a producer (Lush, Wolfgang Press), a collaborator (movie projects), and a music all-arounder (engineering and programming).

After the cult band’s demise in the mid-’90s, the former members are still active in the music scene and their followers still celebrate their music. Every year, fans initiate an event known as the Cocteaufest where they feast on the compositions of Guthrie, Fraser, and Simon Raymonde with the indirect support from the former band members.

Imagine the moment I held Carousel for the first time. Mixed feelings surged in. I was part hesitant, part curious, and part excited. Being a long-time Cocteau Twins fan, would it live up to my expectations? Does Carousel have something new to offer? After listening a few times to Guthrie’s latest instrumental work, I had this strange feeling that Fraser’s vocal parts would suddenly appear only to be disappointed that this is no Cocteau Twins album.

After all these years, Guthrie is still making such atmospheric sounds known as dream pop. Carousel feels so utterly familiar that a tear or two will start coming down on your cheek. Once again, you can hear Guthrie’s guitar shimmer the way it did back then. Once again, here come the rich melodious basses that ruled Cocteau’s past albums—from Treasure to Victorialand to Heaven Or Las Vegas.

The opening track “Some Sort of Paradise” promises a good start. It is so ethereal and pure putting your mind at ease at once. The third song, and my favourite, “Delight,” is a pure delight itself. It recounts of danger and excitement. Perhaps, it is also a testament to adventurous sex. “Mission Dolores” is a poignant song that delivers sadness and urgency. The closest you can get to Guthrie’s well-loved Cocteau are through the songs “The Girl with the Little Wings” and “Waiting by the Carousel.” Images start to emerge from one scene to another—jellyfish, heavenly bodies, oceans, lost young women, innocent children, and faceless naked men. These are the things you associate upon listening to Guthrie’s music.

Don’t get me wrong. Though Carousel oozes with loveliness, it requires your full attention. Mind you, it isn’t intended to be played in the background. In order to appreciate the album you have to slow down, or, better yet, stop what you are doing. But once you decide to sit back, relax, and press the play button of your player to hear the ten operatic ditties, Guthrie’s magic dust that is Carousel never ceases to amaze.

Written by: Elen P. Farkas, November 13th 2009

My Electric Family

admin — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 09:48:00 +0000

By Bachelorette

Drag City

Bachelorette is the electronic dream pop project of New Zealander Annabel Alpers. Her record, My Electric Family, is beautifully orchestrated and takes inspiration from its title to explore the lusher, melodic side of electronic music inhabited by the likes of Tortoise, Caribou, Asobi Seksu, and Lali Puna.

The album’s opener, “Instructions for Insomniacs,” showcases Alpers’ layered instrumentation and vocals, with verdant harmonies pushed forward with a loping snare beat and accented with a lap steel guitar. “Her Rotating Head,” a number just asking to be remixed as a dance track with a deeper bass line, directly embraces familiar feminist themes of women’s body image and media exploitation as sex objects with lyrics like, “She likes it that way, she’s programmed to say, ‘objectify me, degrade and revile me.’” These sensibilities set Bachelorette apart from her electronic contemporaries, who often prefer to hide their political sensibilities behind layers of feedback, effects, and laptop generated bleeps.

Alpers embraces and pokes fun at the technology she uses to create her art. During the opening lines of “Technology Boy,” Alpers sings, “Technology boy intends to live his life as a machine, but then his humanness experiences humanitarian resentment.” Alpers’ lyrics are clever and critical without being cynical or biting, making My Electric Family a fun and refreshing listen. She brings in a variety of collaborators to add instrumentation, including the Royal New Zealand Air Force Brass Band to play on “Dream Sequence.” The songs embrace a variety of pop styles, but the overall feeling of the album is engagingly upbeat. With each song contributing to the flow of the album—while also standing alone as a gem of glittering pop—My Electric Family deserves a place among the year’s best indie-pop records.

Written by: Eleanor Whitney, June 24th 2009

dream-pop

Carousel

My Electric Family