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David
Thomas and the two pale boys generate strange and beautiful
new shapes, rolling stories, and sonic panoramas out of spontaneous
deconstructions created with brass, guitar and electronics.
The simple seesawing of a melodeon gives way to cascading electronica
and expressionistic soundscapes-- sometimes pulsating and abrasive,
sometimes mysterious and exploratory. Through it all is woven
the mordant wit of one of the most distinctive and charismatic
singers in modern music, Pere Ubu founder David Thomas.
18 MONKEYS ON A DEAD MAN'S CHEST, their third studio album,
takes the group's extraordinary sonic lexicon, the trademark
soundscaping of electronic trumpeter Andy Diagram and guitar/synthesist
Keith Moliné, and injects it with a furious rock urgency.
Check the zigzagging riffs and knife-edge angularity of the
blistering "Numbers Man." Look, ma, no drums!
As with its predecessors, 18 MONKEYS is a sonic novel stretched
across a non-linear, non-narrative compendium of hieroglyphs.
The sense of a drama unfolding is a product of the improvisatory
nature of the band's approach to recording. At the end of a
Chinese-whispers-like chain and a process that reflects the
seat-of-the-pants theatricality of their concerts, the songs
of 18 MONKEYS ON A DEAD MAN'S CHEST were compiled in the studio
from extemporised performances which are, subsequently, deconstructed,
reconstructed, re-amped, and reconfigured. The left hand never
knows the business of the right hand.
"Habeas Corpus" is a terrifying, coiled mystery, while
the explosive "New Orleans Fuzz" rides a groove so
oozing and swollen it seems on the point of haemorrhage. "Sad
Eyed Lowlands" recasts the "thin, wild mercury sound"
that Dylan was chasing on "Blonde on Blonde" with
results every bit as mesmeric and compelling.
Elsewhere the group fashion mesmerizing ghost-worlds of shifting
perspectives with the splintered micro-drama of "Nebraska
Alcohol Abuse," the epochal "Prepare for the End,"
and the noir-ish tandem of "Little Sister" and "Golden
Surf." Everywhere are surprising details and unique textures--
Mr Diagram's shivery brass-vocalese, Mr Moliné's feral
violin embellishments, Mr Thomas's wheezing, fragile melodeon.
Mr Thomas himself is perhaps more lyrically reflective and revealing
on 18 MONKEYS, exploring the twin psychologies of personal loss
and collective myth, rooting his findings in the specifics of
a very personal American geography. Time and again he eschews
the obvious in his vocal delivery, adopting an incredible range
of unexpected approaches and radical voicings over the course
of the album's nine songs. The sparse, yearning highlight, "Brunswick
Parking Lot," whose bitter nostalgia manages to be both
heart-rending and hilarious, is the still point at the heart
of this ravaged and ravaging album.
SURF'S UP! (2001) was the group's second studio album. The Wire
said of it, "Recalls and then surpasses Swordfishtrombones
period Tom Waits. Indeed, he shares with the film maker David
Lynch the ability to parody a genre while simultaneously unlocking
its forgotten power... Amazing" The Wire also raved about
EREWHON (1996), the group's debut, describing it as "red-blooded,
haunted and literally fantastic." MIRROR MAN (1999), a
live recording featuring the group expanded to be David Thomas
and The Pale Orchestra, was praised widely and enthusiastically.
Mojo called it a "tour de force." It is the soundtrack
of Mr Thomas' rogue opera that toured in the UK with Linda Thompson,
Jackie Leven, Robert Kidney and others. In 2003 it had its US
premiere in Los Angeles featuring Syd Straw, Van Dyke Parks,
Robert Kidney, Frank Black, George Wendt and others.
David Thomas is the founder of avant-rock legends Pere Ubu.
The two pale boys (2pbs) are Andy Diagram (trumpets & electronics)
and Keith Moliné (guitars, violin & electronics).
Andy, a member of James in the early 90s, has played in a number
of influential groups, including Dislocation Dance, The Diagram
Brothers and The Honkies. Currently he plays with the 2pbs and
his own group, Spaceheads. Keith refuses to play in rock (or
jazz) bands. His approach to music derives from "a careful
diet of high-art electronica and low-art Goth." He is currently
playing with They Came From The Stars I Saw Them and has also
worked with Infidel and Mesmerist.
The design of the 18 MONKEYS package is the work of John Thompson/idrome.
Mr Thompson has designed all but two of the Pere Ubu albums
since 1977 and all of the David Thomas albums. |
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18 MONKEY'S ON A
DEAD MAN'S CHEST
SMOG VEIL
2004
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