ORDER/SUBSCRIBE          SPONSORS          CONTACT          WHAT'S NEW          INDEX/SEARCH

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Reviewer biography

Current Reviews

Review Articles

Book Reviews Archive

Acnalbasac Noom

by Slaphappy
ReR Megacorp, Thornton Heath, Surrey UK and Denver, CO USA, 2005
Audio CD. £ 11.50 UK
Distributor’s website: http://www.rermegacorp.com; http://www.rerusa.com

Reviewed by Michael R. (Mike) Mosher
Saginaw Valley State University

mosher@svsu.edu

The band Slaphappy consisted of Dagmar Krause's clear voice, Peter Blegvad's guitar and good ideas, and Anthony Moore's keyboard and guitar. Sometimes they were supplemented by members of Faust, Jean Henri Peron (on bass and drums) and Gunther Wusleff (sax). Their songs were recorded at Wumme, West Germany in 1973 and put out as a vinyl record album, with four later tracks added to this CD.

There is a theatricality to Slaphappy, for "Casablanca Moon" (spell it backwards for the album's title) could be a song heard on the radio show "Prairie Home Companion", and "Me and Paravati" could be a quirkily-worded show tune from the "Rocky Horror Picture Show". "Michelangelo" is a specimen whimsy of the 1970s, while "Mr. Rainbow" sounds like Pink Floyd music with Procol Harum lyrics. "Slow Moon's Rose" exemplifies the contemplative absurdity of their wordplay: "I watched the evening wither/With a jewel at the end of my nose/Tell-tale snails leave their trails/Running from hunters' black blunderbus under the sun" (© Moore, Blackhill Music). The words to "The Secret" suggest Joni Mitchell or Carole King, while "A Little Something" has that slightly bossa nova beat that Joni Mitchell often employed. Its lyrics appear in the CD's booklet in the wrong order.

"The Drum" features Seventies rock guitar that would be at home on Eno's "Taking Tiger Mountain", like that of Phil Manzanera of Roxy Music, or even solo Paul McCartney hits of the era. There is distinctly Beatlesque guitar in "Half Way There" and "Charlie 'n Charlie" too. The bonus cuts added to this CD show the Slaphappy principals' further evolution and attentiveness to the musical zeitgeist. "Everybody's Slimmin'" was a bouncy diet-friendly single on HalfCat Records. Like M's "Pop Music", it's a gem of the slickest production heard at the dawn of the Big Eighties, Reaganesquely rich in background voices and syn-drums. "Blue Eyed William" layers voices--not just Krause's--into a choir, "Karen" is a Blegvad solo project that showcases his voice reminiscent of John Lee Hooker, while "Messaage" is solo Krause, swaying to the same beat as "Karen". One ponders Blegvad and Krause as the creative relationship Lou Reed and Nico should've had throughout the 1960s. These later cuts even suggest Nico's final tracks, shortly before her 1988 bicycling death. Slaphappy could have written a song about that.

 

 




Updated 1st December 2005


Contact LDR: ldr@leonardo.org

Contact Leonardo: isast@leonardo.info


copyright © 2005 ISAST