Whisperin' & Hollerin' recently delighted in discovering the eclectic, homespun delights of North London's Moshi Moshi Records: a label who have been busily injecting London's post-Britpop landscape with an all-important shot of futuristic creativity. The briefest blast of their "We Got Monkeys" album makes you realise the London underground (sorry) is still bursting with fresh talent even in the jaded 21st Century.
And now we've got another reason to run up the flags in CatDesigners: basically the brainchild of Bethnal Green's Nick Troop - a man who clearly knows his way around his rock history, but with a knack for subverting genres and adding his own very individualistic spin on what can only very broadly be described as 'indie' on "Chemical Jazz,": the first of two albums (the second, "Strange Little Creature" is due in April 2004) which are to be released on his Googlie Mooglie imprint.
"Chemical Jazz" is a fascinating listen and nothing like as potentially impenetrable as its' title. Impressively, Nick handles all the instruments and, while diversity is king, the end results hang together admirably, ensuring you'll want to revisit the album again as soon as possible.
The title track kicks off. Immediately atmospheric, with a trip-hop(py) beat, churchy keyboards and Peter Hook-ish bassline explorations, it marries huge E-bowed guitars with Nick's sweet and emancipated vocals and really soars away with a spiritual(ized) feel.
Excellent start, and most of what follows is equally good. Lyrically, Troop's mostly personal and introspective and much of what he writes remains open-ended, but emotionally he always scores here, especially when he's attacking acoustic, inimate material like "Gravity Means" or "While You Were Dancing." The former - in terms of feel - strangely reminds your reviewer of early Auteurs, while "...Dancing" is romantic, but slightly desperate and a little creepy, not least when Nick sings lines like: "If I could cruise into some crisis with you." Cool. And never less than thought-provoking.
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Often, Nick teases us with possible references, only to pull the rug away and veer off at other intriguing titles. "Six Line Song"s title, for example, immediately has your reviewer referencing Bowie's "Eight Line Poem", but is built around a vibrato guitar figure and a prettily fragile feel akin to Jeff Buckley, while "Vapour Trail" also initially recalls early strummy Bowie or possibly Radiohead at their ghostliest, but crucially the end results are all very much Nick Troop's own work.
This also applies with songs like "Medicine Show" and the oddball waltz of "...Ion", which are both a little reminiscent of Blur and demonstrate Nick can do anthemic effectively. However, he's also headroom to accommodate songs like "Where You Go" and "Dizzy Q"; both of which leave referencing stranded on a distant shore. Suffice it to say the former features a brilliant jaywalking bassline and can only just about effectively be described as 'rockabilly noir.' Unlikely I agree, but it works, as does "Dizzy Q", which is even more startling and bursts from a tinkly electronic cocoon to a full-blown rawk butterfly. Whoa.
"Chemical Jazz", then, is ultimately a defiantly square peg where the round hole pigeonholers are concerned and that's definitely one of its' many strengths. Nick Troop is very surely a man to watch and we intend to get on the case with "Strange Little Creature" as soon as possible come the new year as well.
Antenna up and staying tuned.....
(www.catdesigners.co.uk)
(www.googliemooglie.co.uk )
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