Niobe- The Cclose Call

I could go on and on about this release but suffice to say that it’s a tremendous record and you need to give it a spin.

I could go on and on about this release but suffice to say that it’s a tremendous record and you need to give it a spin.

 

 

http://www.tomlab.com http://www.konkurrent.nl

 

A cracker of an LP and one I heartily recommend. The whole record is about balancing strange conceits over a sparse but enervating sonic tapestry. It’s a loose, snakey thing and with a vibe that is in parts inquisitive and genial and in parts acerbic. Opener The Stillness is a groovy workout that has something of Nick Cave about it whereas Asthmatic Person In Pink or Does He Gallop or Walk are other things entirely. Slipping and sliding through styles, samples and beats it resembles something the Last Poets would have made; actually this record reminds me a lot of the things the Last Poets did – maybe it’s the fact that a lot of the tracks on The Cclose Call are spoken word and that wee bit jazzy….

Elsewhere Cclose Call reminds this old git of other past glories: Stop! You Send For Me, Exotic and Monsters Under My Bed are mood pieces that have the inquisitiveness and invention of Ludus or the soul punk that Neneh Cherry pedalled in spade-fulls. This policy of cutting up songs with samples and words and weird beats makes the music restless, it never, ever sits still, as seen on Walk the Walk! which is a strange soul stomp, equal bits diva and equal bits psych grumble. It’s a fabulous track. Other highlights are Stuck to the Fact and So Much Legend which are tremendously sharp pop songs and ones that have something of the stuff Eno was doing in the early to mid-seventies, they just can’t steer a straight course, they have to keep deviating from the path in order to investigate some strange noise or riff or beat.

I could go on and on about this release but suffice to say that it’s a tremendous record and you need to give it a spin.