My Lord, what a great LP this is. The title is pretty self-explanatory, 4 young ladies are drawn from different parts of the planet to showcase their individual talents, one after the other.
4 Women No Cry – Volume 3
http://www.m-enterprise.de/ http://www.myspace.com/thesoundoflucrecia
http://www.myspace.com/manekinekod http://www.myspace.com/juliaholter http://www.myspace.com/lizchristinebutterfly
My Lord, what a great LP this is. The title is pretty self-explanatory, 4 young ladies are drawn from different parts of the planet to showcase their individual talents, one after the other.
First up is the winsome pop of The Sound of Lucrecia, who hails from Columbia. And you guessed it, it’s Latin-American pop, so no real surprises, but its endearing, lo-fi pop with an extremely charming outlook and a very clever sensibility. The beautiful De Vez en Cuando mopes gloriously around the room, all the while breaking hearts with the slow, one-note keyboard descend.
Greece is represented by the abstract sound collages of Manekinekod who may have (on the evidence of Like in the Movies) been listening to Holger Czukay. Elsewhere, her sound-scapes are strange to say the least, but never off-putting, rather, they seem to be almost casual attempts at recording background/street noises and making them, well, harmonious. At times they work brilliantly, like on B with An. At no point do you get the cut-up punk feel of say Faust. Nothing is anarchic.
Third on the bill is Julia Holter who is from Los Angeles and mixes an American sensibility (up-front attitude, folky, poppy) with (well, guess) strange noises. Check out the traditional Neighbor Neighbor which has its Toy Town melody pulled in about 20 directions by the diverse instrumentation accompanying it. Holter works with a strong pop sensibility that occasionally nods towards the Gothic, (Minerals has a whiff of Garlands-era Cocteau Twins or the Cure about it).
Incendiary’s favourite on this LP is undoubtedly the Brazilian Liz Christine, whose outrageously Baroque sound-scapes are something else. Dreaming is an adolescent wet dream made music whilst A Song to the Lilac Fairy is a very strange sonic procession indeed. I suppose the same effect could be gained whilst listening to incidental film scores after a good curry. It’s all a bit Kate Bush on drugs. Further investigation unearthed even wilder tracks on her myspace…
All in all, this is a great compilation, but only if you grant it the proper time and understanding.
Words: Richard Foster