Katzenjammer - Le Pop (***)
Who are Katzenjammer? It’s a tougher question than you’d think: they’ve a German name, a French album title, Norwegian passports and a Balkan whirl of a lead single in the form of the Denmark-referencing A Bar in Amsterdam. Trying to take cues from the music leads to similarly dizzying disorientation: cabaret theatrics, weepy Dixie Chicks-country, carnival clowning, and an instrumental that resembles Flight of the Bumblebee adapted by Danny Elfman are only a fraction of its baffling variety: throw in nonsensical doo-wop, gypsy-chic, Shakespeare’s Sister goth-balladry, cutesy polka and more and you’re left with an album that all but defies categorisation. It’s like tuning in to an edition of the Eurovision Song Contest shorn of its cheesiest outreaches, a simile which might help subjectively answer the opening question: Katzenjammer are either your worst nightmare, or excitingly broad-minded – unafraid to mix up genres and spit in the face of fashion.
Who are Katzenjammer? It’s a tougher question than you’d think: they’ve a German name, a French album title, Norwegian passports and a Balkan whirl of a lead single in the form of the Denmark-referencing A Bar in Amsterdam. Trying to take cues from the music leads to similarly dizzying disorientation: cabaret theatrics, weepy Dixie Chicks-country, carnival clowning, and an instrumental that resembles Flight of the Bumblebee adapted by Danny Elfman are only a fraction of its baffling variety: throw in nonsensical doo-wop, gypsy-chic, Shakespeare’s Sister goth-balladry, cutesy polka and more and you’re left with an album that all but defies categorisation. It’s like tuning in to an edition of the Eurovision Song Contest shorn of its cheesiest outreaches, a simile which might help subjectively answer the opening question: Katzenjammer are either your worst nightmare, or excitingly broad-minded – unafraid to mix up genres and spit in the face of fashion.
The Sexual Objects - Cucumber (***)
Snowblink - Long Live (****)
Long Live first trickled into view in 2008, extolled by a handful of in-the-loop bloggers and publications as one of the year’s finest albums. Despite such early accolades, it’s taken some time for Toronto duo Snowblink to capitalise on the goodwill, with their enchanting debut only now acquiring a full release. Its tracks emerge from their hibernation undiminished, largely due to Daniela Gesundheit’s soaring vocals and poetic lyrics (“one little tremor as tender as a frost thawing into a pond” is a typically redolent simile). Ambergris is its pinnacle, its titular metaphor wrapped in an airy, Feist-y melody. It’s exciting to contemplate where the talents of Gesundheit and band-mate Dan Goldman have led them since, but such revelations will follow in good time. For now, they’ve likely found their way on to a few more ‘best of’ lists in the most understated manner imaginable.
The Sexual Objects play Freudian games on debut Cucumber. The onanistic connotations of the band/album name combination, along with tracks entitled Full Penetration and Baby Wants To Ride, meant that the chorus of the opening Here Come the Rubber Cops was confused by this reviewer for "here come the rubber cocks" (making the implications of lines like “just want to spread my wings and make a mess of things” too rude to contemplate).
Davy Henderson’s new outfit are dirty in a different sense, sharing with his past acts The Fire Engines and The Nectarine No. 9 a rough-and-ready style, with bluesy licks riding raw recordings in a manner akin to Lou Reed’s post-Velvet Underground, pre-aural antagonism period. T-Rex and the Rolling Stones are echoed frequently also, but while hardly original, the Sexual Objects are doing what they do with sufficient swagger and sleaze to pull it off (snigger).Snowblink - Long Live (****)
Long Live first trickled into view in 2008, extolled by a handful of in-the-loop bloggers and publications as one of the year’s finest albums. Despite such early accolades, it’s taken some time for Toronto duo Snowblink to capitalise on the goodwill, with their enchanting debut only now acquiring a full release. Its tracks emerge from their hibernation undiminished, largely due to Daniela Gesundheit’s soaring vocals and poetic lyrics (“one little tremor as tender as a frost thawing into a pond” is a typically redolent simile). Ambergris is its pinnacle, its titular metaphor wrapped in an airy, Feist-y melody. It’s exciting to contemplate where the talents of Gesundheit and band-mate Dan Goldman have led them since, but such revelations will follow in good time. For now, they’ve likely found their way on to a few more ‘best of’ lists in the most understated manner imaginable.
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