Nick Cave, Warren Ellis and Jim Sclavunos offer a track by track analysis of Grinderman's appropriately titled sophomore LP, Grinderman 2. Warning: delightful/endearing turns of phrase (stoner funk, mesmerized Cro-Magnon, predatory groove) ahead.
"MICKEY MOUSE & THE GOODBYE MAN"
Nick Cave: Mickey Mouse & The Goodbye Man sets up a kind of narrative that is echoed throughout the songs on the record and it became the first song because it’s there for that reason and also because it’s very direct. It’s a rock n roll song in a strange kind of way and I think it drags people into the record pretty effectively.
"WORM TAMER"
NC: Well, Worm Tamer, for me, is one of the most extraordinary songs I’ve ever been involved in all the years of making music. I’ve never heard anything like it in my life. It’s got a wry kind of lyric to it, but sonically it’s really extraordinary and I can’t really describe it, you just have to kind of hear it. There’s something really mental about it, I think.
Warren Ellis: Worm Tamer is a very dense number. It’s one that’s going to be interesting to play live, I think. It’s the one song that really doesn’t sound like anything I’ve ever heard before. I think it’s very unique-sounding that song. I really love it; that one and Kitchenette, I think, are probably my favourite songs on the album.
"HEATHEN CHILD"
Jim Sclavunos: Heathen Child, which is the first single to be taken off Grinderman 2, is very groovy, infectiously groovy, deeply and profoundly groovy. You might say it’s a predatory groove; but you can bump and grind to it (even if you’re not a predator). You can belly dance to it, assuming you have the right physique. You can even do the huckabuck, if you are particularly agile. I believe it also lends itself to long private episodes in the bathtub… if the video is any evidence.
"EVIL"
JS: The song Evil, I believe, will endure to prove that it has a timeless appeal, very much like the appeal of its subject matter.
"KITCHENETTE"
NC: Well, Kitchenette is kind of a down home, dirty, stoner blues. It’s Warren’s favourite song on the record, I think.
PTV: Well yeah, I really love Kitchenette ‘cause it just has such a wonderful loose feel to it and I think it actually feels… For me it’s one of the best vocals I’ve heard Nick do. It’s really so relaxed and the phrasing is fantastic and it just feels like you’re really in a moment with it. You feel like you’re listening to it as it unfolds, which is actually what it is. I really love that song. I could listen to that one song over and over.
JS: The track Kitchenette offers a sobering look at the sordid conditions of modern marriage and family life and the various temptations and disillusionment besetting this institution. And all of this has been set to a relentless, sinister and growling groove.
"WHAT I KNOW"
NC: Once again, that was a piece that was a moment we captured, purely improvised, that was within this period, when we originally recorded stuff, and it was just this really beautiful quiet kind of moment that was had and we just chopped it out and kind of pasted it into the record.
JS: What I Know has a very different feel for Grinderman. It spotlights our more introspective side. I would liken it to a delicate, fragile bauble being caressed by a mesmerized Cro-Magnon.
"BELLRINGER BLUES"
JS: Bellringer Blues is a battlefield hallucination set to stoner funk. It was the sleeper track of the
album and I think it’s a perfect album closer, as it draws the curtains on the troubled affairs of the album with an air of triumphant rapture.
DFA approved New Yorkers Holy Ghost! play nationally in September/October as part of Parklife 2010 but if you're as appreciative of their taste as you are of their music, the disco revivalists have also announced a handful of intimate DJ sets in Perth, Brisbane, Melbourne and Sydney. They were forced to cancel a Down Under tour last year due to the untimely death of bandmate and close friend Jerry Fuchs so let's make them feel welcome this time round.
CLUB SHOW DJ SETS
Friday 24 September - Brisbane - Lick It & Happy-Endings presents HOLY GHOST! DJ set
Sunday 26 September - Perth - Bohemia presents HOLY GHOST! DJ set
Friday 1 October - Melbourne - Weekly Aural Xtravaganza (WAX) presents HOLY GHOST! DJ set
Sunday 3 October - Sydney - Adult Disco presents HOLY GHOST! DJ set
The last time electronica/producer and tech head Richard D. James brought out an album under his Aphex Twin moniker was almost ten years ago. "Drukqs" was released in 2001 - a hefty 30 track double album that divided critics with its indecipherable song titles, far too many filler skits and gratuitously weird vibes and didn't have a shade on his hugely influential 1993 breakthrough Selected Ambient Works 85-92. "Drukqs" was widely rumoured as his final LP with Warp Records and with James regularly threatening retirement few fans have held their breath regarding new releases from the godfather of 'Braindance'...
But what's this we hear about a brand new Aphex Twin album in the making?! The Quietus have heard reports suggesting Warp have signed James for another release and that the new album is "imminent", however no release date has been confirmed at this point. Last week Aphex Twin joined South African rave-hop outfit Die Antwoord on stage at London Electronic Dance festival, so we're hoping there might be an Akrikaans vocal cameo in the mix.
Richard D. James fans prepare to get your freak on when the full album details get their leak on...
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