|
|
| |
| |
ALTERNATIVE PRESS
The Cakekitchen: Tapping into humanity´s weakest links affords their songs a noble understanding which contrasts the eerie sadness of their melodies
THE CAKEKITCHEN
Stompin Thru the Boneyard
Graeme Jefferies´low keyed musical path finds him our ever-weary yet
ceaselessly inspired traveller. From beginnings as New Zealand´s new
breed. (With his brother Peter in the seminal This Kind of Punishment,
and evidenced later by his solo masterpiece Messages for the Cakekitchen),
he eventually headed for England with new band Cakekitchen. Now after
some line-up changes and three releases on Homestead, he´s back in New
Zealand with only a drummer, Jean-Yves Douet. And a new label with the
smarts to take him on.
His fourth full length release reveals a continuation of themes in a
stripped setting that recalls Messages, but expands on themes. Like Syd
Barrett wandering through a fairy tale, the dark forest Stompin‘ brings to
life a dozen confused, mad characters, voices and mirages with nothing
very sagelike about them. They´re all painted with a compassionate yet
bitter resignation.
The brazen riff-peddling and marchlike rhythm on “Mr Adrian´s Lost in
his Last Panic Attack” sympathetically portry a fearful estranged existence,
reverberating with bending notes and the clanging of dishes, yet the song
is never lost amongst the noisy clatter. Tapping into the weakest links in
humanity affords Jefferies´songs a humble and noble understanding that
contrasts with the eerie sadness of his memorable melodies. What seems
to be nearly an upbeat pop tune in “Even As We Sleep” morphs from a
lover´s celebration to a paranoid , unsettling doubt. Like a psychedelic and
calming downer, new highs in the depths odf despair are reached in the
folkish “Mad Clarinet,” about a young romantic who´s lost all hope, crying
with the colors of Alastair Galbraith´s violin. “This Questionnaire” is a tongue
-in cheek psychological check-up in which the lyric repeats, “Could it be that
you´re lonely?” Closing with (I don´t want to hear) “Another Sad Story;”
the journey and tale are complete.There´s nothing left to do but sleep and
hope for dreaming, and that the damn voices might stop coming from twelve
directions at once.
Graeme Jefferies is important from several vantage points - as a successful
sculptor of found sounds and an inventive guitarist, as a lo-fi innovator, a
mood maker and a talented songwriter - he´s a true auteur proving that doing
it yourself can culminate in brillance, especially if one knows what he´s doing.
Once again he does. (Merge, P.O Box 1235, Chapel Hill NC 27514)
-Cyndi Elliott
|
|
| |
| |
|
