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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ “…quark,
strangeness and charm.” UNPEELED is an independent British magazine, ‘…exactly what the NME used
to be’ Review by Nick Listen With Sarah Are
You Sitting Comfortably? (Womb Records) Some things really, really, really piss me off. One of them is when a self-proclaimed ‘artist’ dumps a pile of shit in my eyeballs or in my ears and then tells me that it’s ice cream, not crap and if I can’t tell the difference it’s my fault, so I’d better lap it up. Bollocks. The chavviest, townie burberry victim can tell at a glance the difference between a Pollock and a paint lorry shedding it’s load and the daftest, drunkest music hack (that’s where I come in) can tell the difference between someone trying to make a virtue out of the fact that they’d like to make music, but couldn’t be bothered with the petty business of learning to play any instrument. Now, this Sarah type is someone who can play, and does. She’s also someone who’s taken the sensible precaution of roping in some other classy players on this selection of tracks that see the weird and the whimsical out in force, but to good effect. Kick off with the “Animal Hop” and while you get a sensuously seamless bass n percussion meld, you also get a real touch of Ivor Cutler with something that sounds like a crumhorn, all topped with animal noises, various. So it goes, and you’ll find that the 14 tracks that this compilation of Sarah’s four previous EP’s fly by. Hawkwind were an appalling ole hippy-shit metal band, but it’s one of their album titles that captures the essence and, big word alert, the actuality of this collection, quark, strangeness and charm. It’s true, I defy anyone to listen to “My Crow’s Soft Sounds” and not start to melt, the waspish buzz that curdles the synth on “July (Part1) is a delight and again it’s the bass n percussion collusion that shunts the jazzed out trip-hip-slip of “My Dog’s Got No Nose” along in that blissed n blessed way that you love, g’wan, you know you do, you always do. No wonder ole man Peel was playing them to bits. UNPEELED
January 2005 – www.unpeeled.co.uk |