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World Sanguine Report: Skeleton Blush
ByThe track titles give a strong indication that this is not an album filled with cheery, Saturday night out singalongs: album opener "World With A Moon" makes it plainer as Plummer intones "It's a cruel, cruel world in sunlight." The mix of influencesWeimar cabaret, post-punk, Miles Davis, and moreresults in a distinctive, full-on sound. Plummer's vocal style is reminiscent of Blood Money-era Tom Waits, with a hint of Captain Beefhearthis lyrics wouldn't be out of place on a Waits song either. When Seaming To adds her voice to the mix the result is an otherworldly combination that accentuates the emotional impact of the lyrics even if the words are rarely unequivocal. Phrases such as "Faulting bars of haven, Tactile lips of krill, Ships swing from their anchors, For Phosphorescent Darling" (from "Phosphorescent Darling") spring to life on the lips of the vocalists.
Musically, Plummer's guitar is to the fore, but James Allsopp's baritone sax and bass clarinet do much to add to the dark, despondent mood on tracks such as "No Reason" (a beautiful, mysterious, song that may be about lost love, or revenge). "Aou," another slow tempo song, is equally beautiful: Plummer, Allsopp, trumpeter Alex Bonney and keyboard player Matthew Bourne build dreamlike layers of sound on top of bass guitar and drums as Plummer intones, rather than sings, the lyric. Overall, the music is tougher and more aggressive than these two tracks suggest, the angular, hard-rock, "Blench" typifying this higher-energy approach.
The CD is accompanied by three 12-inch monochrome prints by artist Chris Odgers, all as fascinating and unsettling as the words and music. Artworks, design, compositions and performances come together to create one of 2020's most unusual and arresting releases. Doom-laden, dark, dystopianmusically and visuallySkeleton Blush should be a depressing way to spend an hour or so, and yet such is its vision, energy and imagination it's an energising and somehow uplifting body of work.
Track Listing
World Without A Moon; Blench; No Reason; Disinter; Skeleton Blush; AAOU; AOU; Ghetto Scuba; Phosphorescent Darling; God Spat Human Blue Dance; Ladder Laden; Drip Driven; Doom; Together; Waltzer The Flyby.
Personnel
Andrew Plummer
guitarJames Allsopp
saxophone, tenorAlex Bonney
electronicsMatthew Bourne
pianoRuth Goller
bassTom Greenhalgh
drumsAlbum information
Title: Skeleton Blush | Year Released: 2020 | Record Label: Limited Noise
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