| When you hear the opening track to Denies The Days Demise, you wonder what he meant by that statement. He didn’t give anything away at the time. "At My Heels" safely follows on from the high standard of Exquisite Corpse with the hip hop mix of 50s film score. However, it’s "Sundown" that is the turning point. It moves into an anthemic theme (with Daedelus aka Alfred Weisberg-Roberts on vocals), with stadium rock sound effects and wait for it… he’s gone south of the border. So far south it’s in Spiritual South’s territory. Not Brixton, Brazil! So this is what he was on about. The next episode of Keepintime is Brazilintime (as featured on Gilles Peterson’s show recently when he bumped into B+ et al at their the Hotel in Sao Paulo). The other about turn on this album is that it’s a true solo album. No guests at all. This just goes to show off his wealth of musical talent. With his electro wizardry, some of the tracks get a bit techno along with the Brazilian beats, such as, "Nouveau Nova," "Samba Legrand" and "Our Last Stand." He’s as leftfield as ever. Remember, it’s all about the cowbells. "Bahia" gets the "Come Dancing" brass section out and Alfred leads the cuicas with the bass clarinet, it’s awesome. As he’s on tour with those Bongos, Bleeps & Basslines masters, Zero dB, I’d like to see them all do a jam session on "Bahia." "Like Clockwork Springs" puts all this samba goodness in a clock-shop (which is a little reminiscent of the throb of Tunng’s "Engine Room"). Not sure what he’s saying on "Lights Out" (sounds a bit like a distorted "Red Army" terrace chant?) or about the significance of the album cover art of a young lad waking up in bed infront of a London skyline. "Petite Samba" and "Sunrise" slows down the pace and gradually leads us back into the romance of a 1950s picture house. There’s not a bad track on this album (Ed. You would say that). I’m sure Alfred would admit he’s not got the strongest voice in the world, but even so, the wistful "Viva Vida" is very moving. Mr. Weisberg-Roberts has astounded this reviewer (once again) and I’ve failed to do it justice. - Fly |
2XLP/Out Of Print