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Experimental US collective Jackie-O Motherfucker are almost defined by
their loose-fit free-form approach. Over the last 15 years the
"project" has evolved and developed, with members and collaborators coming
and going, to work with lynchpin Tom Greenwood, and often - as with this,
their 10th studio album - taking inspiration from their improvisatory live
performances and feeding those ideas back into subsequent recordings.
This
album (perhaps named after a Diego Rivera mural of the same name), with a
mere six tracks and a total running time of just over 40 minutes, is
nevertheless as dense and ideas-rich as other releases of twice its
length.
Opening track Nightingale, a version of a traditional ballad, is a gentle
and accessible starter. Ushered in with the softest of drones, the vocal
here - and also on The Cryin' Sea and A Mania - has a lovely gentle,
slightly off-key yet inclusive quality to it. The lilting three-four waltz
rhythm contributes to the effect, which is slightly at odds with the
melancholy lyrics ("And weeping, she cries / My heart is broken" ... "All hope
is destroyed"), but the dissonance is an agreeable one.
Skylight - which
has featured in JOMF live sets for the past few years - has a similar warmth
and relatively straightforward structure to it, but this time layered, full
and psychedelic, with the drones threatening to overwhelm and subsume the
main melodic thread in places. Closer A Mania, with its much more sparse
(mainly acoustic guitar) setting also charms with its warmth, this time
enhanced by the addition of a female backing vocal courtesy of Honey
Owens.
The most experimental and superficially "challenging" track to be found
on this release is Dark Falcons - an improvisation based on a Lucky Dragons
song, which includes samples and loops from that original recording. As the
flutter of various unidentifiable wind and percussion instruments gradually
coalesces behind the disembodied and unearthly vocal, the mood that is
created is one of mystery touched with a little darkness or unease.
As the
volume swells with the arrival of more frenetic percussion and psychedelic
guitar and synth effects it becomes disorientating, trippy, frenzied. Also
on the darker, more unconventional end of the spectrum is The Corner, with
its sinister bass line, gurgling glitches, sudden crashes and the whistling
wind in the background. The vocal here, too, is sinister and the listener
is never allowed to settle, with seemingly random noise eruptions around
each "corner" keeping you on your toes.
Quite the opposite effect is achieved in the following track The Cryin'
Sea. Here "settling in" is precisely what the listener can do, to
this extended jam, with its basic structure stretched and slowly unfurling
for all of its 10+ minutes: a long soak in a warm bath of psychedelia.
Living with and getting to know this album, then, is also an immersive
experience. More concerned with conveying mood and atmosphere than concrete
or transparent meaning, it is a marvellous and evocative journey upon which
you will be taken, if you succumb to its insignificant challenges and its
many more significant charms.
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Mercury Prize 2009 nominees
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