Made by a dementedly charming Philadelphia-based trio, this is the sixth in a series that started with their "white" album way back in 1995.
The shimmering (platinumised) cardboard sleeve contains three distinct CDs (slip covers pictured) , each with a symmetrical and appropriate 6 tracks. (Except for the hidden extra on the second of course). "Morgen" is deliciously folksy and innocent, Mittag has a day-worn but intelligent urbanite feel, somewhere out in LAMBCHOP land perhaps. "Nacht" collects the demons for a scrawling filthy rush of S&M cowboy songs with hardcore punky echoes and tinkles. The concept is just so bonkers that it really works. The production is top notch and there is more than enough genuine musical quality to carry the occasionally whimsy.
It’s the sort of album that really talented people might make if they had won the Lottery and had no one to please but their own muse. The range of styles and attitudes would be utterly bewildering if the three CD trick hadn’t been involved.
"Morgen" has two ravishing songs: "Whale Song" and "Castle Walls" that would fit somewhere between Nina Nastasia and Piney Gir. The four others use variants of similarly subtle acoustic accompaniment and delicate harmony singing. All six are outstanding tunes. The band seem at their fullest stretch on this gentler stuff, playing and singing to all their strengths. Maggi's voice is prominent and (you have to say it) seriously seductive. It’s very intimate, personal and close up. "Big Falls WI" finishes with a relaxed minmal drum kit and astonishing variety in the lightest of arrangements.
I was totally captivated by the end of the "Morgen" CD. I had hardly noticed that "Big Falls WI" had picked up the tempo towards the end. So when Kennison came in a bit Fountains of Wayne with its electric guitars and adolescent pouting "Morgen" rushes off into something different. The last section of Kennison is a chorus from "You’re a Boy" by the Who. It fits perfectly. And then, off it goes genre hopping through Latin jazz with rapping ("Music if the Sea") and all sorts, with the intellectual reach and playfulness of a YO LA TENGO jam session. Are there any instruments they don’t play? "Snowed in with You" has the orchestrated feel of ZAPPA piece as the big guitar tendency breaks out of hiding. "Ezra's Store" with it's lonely harmonica, Ellis-style violin and Maggi's soulful husky voice could be an old country tune. And then some great mandolin and it picks up into a barn dance for a verse, before going back to the mournful romance. Magic.
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The hidden track comes in like Camper van Beethoven. "I knitted you a scarf. You wore it on TV. Matty taped the show for me." Straight faced, dumb and delectable.
"Nacht" is less obviously destined for the sweet trolley. The sexuality is more out in the open (and less appealing, naturally). But there will be plenty who find the masturbation song lots of fun. "One Hand" comes in with a Chinese gong and proceeds with a pretty good translation of some heavyweight rock posturing. Some mighty harmonies save the heaviness from the danger of self-strangulation. And, like the rest of the "Nacht" CD it provides enough excuses to return now and again after multiple plays of "Morgen" and Mittag". 3:2:1 is about optimum I'd say. "Inseine" nods in the direction of Rock America's continuing fascination with classic Pink Floyd. "String of Pearls" has a visceral punked-over Polly Harvey approach (with some very agreeable rasping slide guitar) that turns into a twinkling acoustic episode of woodland reverie. Very odd. Final track 706 takes one last look at the world of Zappa complexity and collage and skates manically over a whole skid pan of oily devil references and scuttling noises.
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