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It appears that free folk is going the way of electronica, with
seemingly hundreds of bedroom producers picking up their four
tracks again and constructing delicate compositions with their
accumulated collections of toys and small instruments. Of course
this all means that the bubble is likely to burst any minute,
but for now we can enjoy it while it's still reasonably fresh,
and Jonquil's 'Sunny Casinos' is a lovingly produced marvel of
a record. Taking cues from the anything-goes approach of Akron/Family
and the anal production obsessions of The Microphones, Jonquil
mainman Hugo Manuel layers his whimsical vocals over lightly picked
acoustic guitars and grittily recorded noises. Funnily enough
this reminds me somewhat of the recent slew of Twisted Nerve 7"s;
Voice of the Seven Woods, Sam and the Plants et al. There's that
beautifully inclusive 'throw it all in the mix' feeling, yet at
the same time we've got songs on offer here and not merely improvisations;
check 'There is no Ian Bridgewater' which takes a room-recorded
drum part and then lays on guitar part over guitar part before
adding the wordless vocal part. It feels like a tribal hymn to
a long-lost idol, and this reverential quality is not lost over
the course of the album's 40 minute running time. Elsewhere we
get the shimmering Tim Hecker-sounding 'Too Late' and 'Tracing'
which sounds like a recording made in the back room of a disused
junk shop. It's quite an achievement that Manuel and his collaborators
have managed to condense so many influences on 'Sunny Casinos'
and come out with such an incredibly coherent statement. It might
be called 'Sunny Casinos' but I can't think of a better way to
keep myself smiling as the rain comes in this winter. |
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WORK005 1. Avignon CD album in gatefold sleeve |