Quickspace - The Death of Quickspace
(Matador)
In preparation for writing this review I looked over the Quickspace
press kit thing which accompanied the CD. Though the offical Quickspace
bio doesn't mention the word, I soon discovered from the photocopied
reviews of some of the band's previous efforts that they are definitely
"kraut." Not having had the pleasure of exposure to their other work, I
have to say "okay, but..."
I mean first of all, you can't fool me, they're obviously from England or
somewhere like that. Second, I don't know of anything from Germany that's
nearly this much fun to listen to. Yes, there are some krauty sounds
here, one or two synth grooves, some minimalism, some strange tonally
minor stuff, but I think this is less kraut-rock and more
nerds-who-smoke-drugs-rock. I hear more Devo than Kraftwerk, more Eno (or
at least Phil Manzanera) than Cluster. And what REALLY appeals to me
about this CD is the occasional but unmistakable resemblance to Crazy
Rhythms era Feelies, both in Tom Cullinan's desperate/goofy vocal style
and in the guitar sounds and structures, which are playful and loose, but
still strangely sort of sad. I don't want to give the false impression
that this is a silly record, but it does please me a great deal to hear a
band that doesn't bog their music down so heavily in seriousness that the
expressiveness can't push through.
This album was apparently recorded by the band in a barn, and the sound is
consequently a bit lo-fi and boxy, but not harsh. The simplicity of the
production fits the music well. Guitar, violin and mostly organic
sounding electronics such as theremin and analog synths wobble crazily on
top of jagged, repetitive and solid rhythms. The drone of unchanging song
structures allows the parts (and especially the male/female double vocals)
to be improvised to some extent, which in this case doesn't result in
annoying "jams" but rather in rhythmic parts that could be fixed and
repetitive, but that actually flex and change and speak. Despite the
comparisons and even resemblances to so-called kraut-rock, this is music
that's more felt than intellectualized, and it's really a beautiful
record.
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