A.R. Kane
69

A.R. Kane was a British duo formed by multi-instrumentalist Alex Ayuli and singer Rudi Tambala. After releasing a couple of singles, in 1988 they managed to record their first album: 69. The album is one of the first examples of what is known as dream pop: the songs retain the length of a simple three-and-a-half minute pop song, but everything is adorned with a dreamlike, pre-industrial, and dark atmosphere, thus the antithesis of the pop song itself.

The album opens with Crazy Blue, where Tambala's voice repeats almost endlessly everything's going crazy, suggesting the beginning of a dream, a psychedelic trip, or perhaps the fact that this world of ours is going crazy. The track is built on dreamlike sounds and over a regulated bass line. The production of the entire album is rich with many sound and physical effects. Suicide Kiss continues the "dream" with excellent steady drumming and a constant bass, also featuring many distorted guitar riffs.

The duo's goal is to reinvent a new kind of typically pop rhythm combined with industrial, noise, and post-rock sounds. The album, in fact, had a good influence on much of the early '90s sound, particularly in the alternative scene. Baby Milk Snatchers is a track with a psychedelic and dark nature: a decadent rhythm from a nocturnal metropolis, the bass is always exaggerated, it's the beating heart of almost every single song. Scab is entirely based on a rhythm created by an industrial and futuristic beat with added rhythmic guitar strums in the absence of the beat. Sulliday starts with strong distorted sounds, transforming into a track with late '60s acid rock references. Dizzy features calm singing alternated with infernal screams, a very deep bass, and distortions. The calm and crazy components of the singing create a combination of original making. Sperm Whale Trip Over is the only track close to dream pop. The voices are warmer, calmer, and the background choirs echo psychedelia. The Sun Falls into the Sea begins with a spatial guitar riff of clear psychedelic origin, which can remind one of the Barrett-era Pink Floyd. The voices are fused into one, creating a sense of bewilderment in the listener. The Madonna Is With Child is entirely permeated by a bass sounding like a piano and a whispered voice. Spanish Quay (3) is halfway between dream pop and new age, which may seem paradoxical within an album with heavily chaotic sounds, but the choice is intentionally made to lower the atmosphere.
The track is instrumental and very short in duration. The pace slows down in the last pieces, almost foretelling that the dream (or perhaps the nightmare?)
is ending and we are about to wake up.

RATING: 7