- Label:
- Melodic »
If the opening track of an album is meant to give an indication of what is to follow, then ‘Do A Stunt’ does just that for Working For A Nuclear Free City on Jojo Burger Tempest. It is an instrumental introduction which, in less than three minutes, covers electro and funk via sections of mariachi guitar, grooving bass and quirky sci-fi synths. It feels like being taken on a light-speed tour of the band’s studio, absorbing their entire record collection on the way.
It could be seen as an accomplishment that WFANFC were able to fit so much into such a short space of time. But it does set a context for some highly indulgent experimentation, which the remaining 90 minutes of the record does its best to live up to.
‘Pachinko’, for example, is one of many instrumental tracks on Jojo Burger Tempest. It is swimming in bleeps and squelches – an audible alphabet of psychedelic sound effects. But it feels like this is all to compensate for a fairly plain bass riff that the song is structured around. There is a tight crescendo that offers a musical kick, but even this sounds like wasted energy, as it takes half a dozen awkward loops to have the same impact that a lone distorted guitar could have made.
Similarly, the numerous guitars and synths on the psych-folk ballad ‘Silent Times’ tend to be more atmospheric than melodic, meaning there is very little that will stick in your head. Indeed, it’s often very difficult for hooks to make themselves heard beneath all the artificial noise. ‘Black Rivers’ offers an ominously catchy bass hook, which makes it feel as though there might be a song in there somewhere, if only the band would let it out. The folky ‘Little Lenin’ suffers from the same problem of having had a sequencer rammed up its arse.
WFANFC are better when they sound more natural. ‘Faster Daniel Faster’ is, instrumentally, a more straightforward bit of avant-garde indie, making the band sound more human until their synth gimmicks intrude again in the closing bars. Only on ‘Low’ do they really strike the right balance of energetic guitar and soaring synthesised atmospherics, making a grinding indie-rock track into something quite special.
By and large though, WFANFC seem to be taking on too much at once. The stompy indie-rock of ‘The King And June’ should really be on another album by another band, as it simply doesn’t sit right in the flow of the psychedelia. In the same way, ‘Burning’ is too stripped back to fit into the album this late on. But at least as a slightly maudlin folk song it shows that the band are capable letting their guard down and abandoning all their tricks.
They achieve more of what they set out to on ‘The Jojo Burger Tempest’, which, at thirty-three-and-a-half minutes long, comes on a separate disc. Such length gives WFANFC the space to not only work their way through their diverse range of ideas, but also to get those ideas to work together. Now that they aren’t forced break up their music into three-minute snippets, they are able weave indie and rock into electro and funk with a great deal more clarity and cleverness.
Unfortunately, the hour-long main section of Jojo Burger Tempest is too hollow to be of much merit. The great variety of timbres on the album creates a psychedelic vibe, but the songs themselves are simply lacking in focus. Too much attention is paid to how they sound at the expense of what they say. There is great irony therefore, in the fact that it probably took WFANFC many months of meticulous perfectionism to create and arrange the sounds produced on this record, because fundamentally, they are the shiny packaging on an empty box.
This band has a new album out?
I remember everyone making a fuss over the last one and I haven't heard a single thing on this until today. The double disc they released in America was amazing. After a 3 year wait this thing falls flat?
I am really looking forward to this despite the dismally-rated review
I usually take reviews with a grain of salt anyway. I have anticipated this album for quite a while, and will probably re-read the above review after I've properly digested the music. 9 times out of 10, I find that I agree with some of the points of a given review, just not enough to warrant whatever low rating it's been given. WFANFC have never been my favorite band, but I have found them to be consistently good listening. I fail to see why or how this album would prove to be anything less.
you're talking shit. this album is amazing
and I'm not the only one who thinks so. Every other review so far has given it 8/10. You were probably one of those people who hated kid a when it came out. You should probably stick to coldplay. Dick.
Dear Sir, you are a poor journalist.
I found your review very badly written. Sounds like something a high school kid would write. You are also quite wrong about this record. Here's a review by someone who can actually write and recognize something good when it smakes him in his stupid untalented face.
....................................................................
and now for something completely different...
First of all let me start by saying that this is perhaps the most eclectic record I've heard all year. Is that necessarily a good thing though? Well yes and no, on one hand a lack of cohesion can result in a lack of identity but on the other how many of you are sick to the gills of albums which front-load the singles then spend a good 40 minutes reloading 'more of the same only less so'? Working For A Nuclear City (WFANC from this point onwards) evidently don't care for labels and while this carefree, adventurous spirit might derail lesser talents, this Mancunian 5 piece have managed to push beyond the veil and what lies beyond is truly a thing of wonder.
Whereas at this point I would generally pick highlights and lowlights and discuss the albums plus points and shortcomings, with this record such trivialities seem almost moot. 'Faster Daniel Faster' is a kaleidoscopic patch-work of glistening shoe-gaze which would put Animal Collective to shame and 'Little Lenin' works Beck's Tom Waits goes hip-hop shtick into a distorted, atonal mess which barely hangs together and yet sounds hopelessly entrancing. 'Low' meanwhile takes a hazy 'block-rocking-beat' and mixes in a dash of doped up voices and burned out while Disk 1's kiss off (yes that's right there are 2 disks) 'Buildings' builds a forlorn melody over spare acoustic guitars and wispy, delicate synth hooks. You probably get the point, literally every song on this record comes from a completely different space in the musical spectrum and yet it all binds together so well, like a wonderful, terrifying compilation from a well meaning but deranged ex-girlfriend.
What WFANC have managed to do here basically is distil 2 decades of Mancunian musical heritage (rave, brit-pop, electronica and all) into a frequently inspired, always entertaining electro-punk-indie-pop-hop-rock-dance inferno which reaches it's piece on disk 2 with the title track, a wandering beast of a tune which milks every second out of it's 33 minute duration. Less a song and more of an extended DJ session expertly mixed, mastered and sequenced The Jojo Burger Tempest is an endlessly inventive collage of sound which pulls liberally from electronic pioneers such as Arthur Russell and more recently Aphex Twin as well as from more avant-garde artists such as Can and Sonic Youth, new wavers like Devo, PiL and Wire and even modern dance producers like Felix Da Housecat.
Jojo Burger Tempest is a work of dense, complex wonder which won't be for everyone and will no doubt offend the ears of the mainstream. You will hear nothing else like it this year. Buy it.
Extremely coherent and very well thought out.
I went back and listened to the self titled release and the Rocket EP, and am now very much ready to give this a listen. Cannot wait!
This man is a fool.
I think I trust the BBC's opinion more than this moron...
BBC Review
The Manchester band’s third LP shifts moods with stirring regularity.
Martin Aston 2010-09-03
First, the Manchester four had to pick an unwieldy band name. Then they go and choose something baffling for their third album. At least 2007’s Businessmen & Ghosts had a much more manageable handle. But that was a double CD, with well over 100 minutes of music. Not content with overloading an unsuspecting public, Jojo Burger Tempest is yet another double, though it’s a trifling 88 minutes. Are they a bit insane?
Maybe, but brothers Phil (keyboards) and Jon Kay (drums), Gary McLure (guitar) and Ed Hulme (bass) are also a bit marvellous. Their press release calls them "Electronic post-rock" but they could also be The Stone Roses if smitten by Krautrock rather than The Byrds or Led Zeppelin. Guitars ring, synths modulate, Phil’s vocals are light and wistful, and the rhythm section is a flexible companion. But the opening Do a Stunt resembles no band more than those most precious, twiddly, sometimes lovable but humungously unfashionable prog-rockers Yes. I repeat: are WFANFC a bit insane?
Silent Times, up next, is a prime dose of Roses/Byrds vintage, and sounds like the sun breaking through the clouds. But nothing is fixed. The instrumental Pachinko darts and swirls around, like the Japanese pinball game it’s named after, with electronic vapour trails and a clear post-rock throb. A Black Square With Four Yellow Stars feels distinctly oriental, but as dreamy and restless as a Bowie Berlin-era instrumental.
Float Bridges takes this mood to another place – a fusion of Yes in their most tranquil prog phrase crossed with their synth-laden 80s guise. On it goes, a mad journey with some gorgeous vistas. WFANFC do make things easy by making CD one a fairly traditional 50 minutes long. The second disc houses the 33-minute title-track, a collage of all the ideas that didn’t make it into songs. It’s less Working For than Driving Through a nuclear-free (or otherwise) city, taking in all the myriad sights, as opposed to the unchanging view of the motorway/ autobahn. It’s the apogee of WFANFC’S haphazard, pulsing approach aesthetic, though it’s the side course to CD one’s more manageable event. In the end, WFANFC aren’t that crazy and way out. How do we know? Because they decided against calling the album Mrs Fuzzlekins Rides Again. The Manchester water supply, so much to answer for…
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Do it in 3.3 minutes or even better 168 seconds and I'm there!
"What WFANC have managed to do here basically is distil 2 decades of Mancunian musical heritage (rave, brit-pop, electronica and all) into a frequently inspired, always entertaining electro-punk-indie-pop-hop-rock-dance inferno which reaches it's piece on disk 2 with the title track, a wandering beast of a tune which milks every second out of it's 33 minute duration."
Reviewer's got this one all wrong
This is a tremendous album, actually makes Businessmen & Ghosts sound bereft of ideas, which I didn't think was possible. Here's my full take on it:
http://keepitlikeasecretblog.blogspot.com/2010/09/review-working-for-nuclear-free-city.html
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