The English band Beak, a project of Geoff Barrow, the man behind the machines in Bristol's Portishead, have arrived at the fateful third album, and they could only title it >>> consistently with the previous one characterized by two beaks.
If imagination and inventiveness don't seem to be at home when it comes to album titles, quite the opposite can be said for the 10 tracks that make up the album. The coordinates are roughly the same: quirky pop with motorik rhythms, based on synths and assorted keyboards, almost entirely instrumental, sometimes dissonant, sometimes almost rock in the approach. This >>> adds a touch, let me use a term I hate, "cinematic". Or rather in the style of Carpenter, to be exact. Just the opening track "The Brazilian" is enough to catapult you into some dystopian future imagined between the late '70s and early '80s. A triumph of often rancid and out-of-tune synths ("Birthday Suite", or the horror sensation of "Abbots Leigh") or icy and supported by syncopated rhythms ("Allè Sauvage") or finally just hinted at, a backdrop of music grazing pure ambient ("Teisco").
A few glimpses of robot rock, between kraut and synthetic post-punk ("King Of The Castle"), references to the cosmic dance of the latest Cavern Of Antimatter ("RSI"), up to the unexpected psycho folk finale of "When We Fall", which clashes with almost everything that precedes it, but offers a distorted and classy interpretation of a genre distant to them. An operation that only succeeds for musicians with great sensitivity. Among the albums of the year just ended.
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