Piano Magic - Artists' Rifles
(Rocket Girl)
Piano Magic are easily one of the best and most original bands working today.
Their strange mixture of the old and the new is strangely familiar like a
surrealest painting by Georgio DeChirico. Piano Magic's music has always felt
fractured and almost schizophrenic, like a dream or a memory (partly because of
their revolving band membership, I'm sure). In spite of the schizophrenic
nature to the music, it retains a simplicity that is incredibly inviting.
Artists' Rifles is no exception, and it continues the fascinating direction of
previous releases.
The fact that all the songs on this album were written by the same four people,
gives it a slightly more coherent feel. Nearly all of the songs revolve around
a World War I theme, evident in the cover photograph of a World War I monument-a
fitting image for Piano Magic's . The songs on Artists' Rifles are much more
sparse than the songs on their previous release, Low Birth Weight, mostly
featuring a single guitar theme, intertwined with keyboards and a
straightforward beat, and although lacking much of the drama of Low Birth Weight
it makes up for it in its simplicity and purity. There is a definite innocence
to the album reflected perhaps best in the song "You & John Are Birds" which
features the sound of birds chirping in the background, overlayed with Caroline
Potter's child like vocals about genies and ghosts. The third song "A Return to
the Sea" is a continuation of the aquatic theme begun on "The Trick of The Sea"
from the darla bliss out.
The second half of the album, however, is the strongest. It begins with "The
Index" which features a harpsichord sounding music box theme and images of birds
and smoke. The title track, Artists' Rifles, however, is the stand out track
for me. It's simple and sad and sweet, all the best elements of Piano Magic.
Artists' Rifles builds on the incredibly solid foundation of previous Piano
Magic releases, and takes it even further by distilling the sound, and producing
a less dramatic, but even more intimate and sensitive album than they have
before. If you are not retarded, you will buy this album--right now.
|
