Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti

Our review
Customer reviews
Press release
Soundclips

5...according to our Business Lady on Thu 03 Jun, 2010.

I've not really heard a huge amount of Ariel Pink's output but on staff recommendation I took the promo home for a little listen and was pretty much blown away, especially by the single 'Round & Round' and late night electro drifter 'Fright Night (nevermore)'. Now i've got a bunch of catching up to do!!! Damn! Anyway, so this is Haunted Graffiti's first LP for 4AD and from what I can gather it's a little more hi-fi than their previous home-recorded output. Obviously, it's hard for me to make any comparison....so I won't. What I can tell you is that this is an amazingly varied and inspired collection of songs that spans the gamut of psych-pop, rock 'n' roll, R&B, New Wave, West Coast Funk, merseybeat harmonies and AOR (that Album Orientated Rock) with relative ease and confident conviction. Ariel Rosenberg's voice is a delight to hear...part skilled, part winging it, but always inventive - plus his band are a stupidly skilled lot. Some of this stuff reminds me of Fleetwood Mac or Bread but in the best possible way. I also can't help but think of 10CC but that's not meant to put you off....this is a fucking great record, no denying. If it's not album of the week i'll weep a little tear of sadness.

To play these clips you need to either update your browser (Norman Records recommends Google Chrome) or update your Flash plugin.

For the best part of a decade, Los Angeles native Ariel Rosenberg aka Ariel Pink has been carving some of the most intoxicating music going, a reclusive pop surrealist whose corroded productions have led to a cult following that has often been difficult to keep up with.
With roots going back as far as 1996, West Coast act Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti are as sublime as they are surreal, with a sound loaded with hazy nostalgia and a fiercely experimental pop palette. From the ‘Haunted Graffiti’ series (from which the full band’s name is now derived), which featured the likes of ‘Worn Copy’ (2005) and ‘House Arrest’ (2006), Ariel Pink has established himself as one of the most prolific songwriters of his generation, a visionary producer in the vein of Joe Meek and Ariel’s hero and previous collaborator, tape deck dilettante R. Stevie Moore.
To date Pink’s most celebrated release – and one that summarises the erratic nature of his output, pieced together from various periods – is ‘The Doldrums’, released on Animal Collective’s Paw Tracks imprint in 2004, yet recorded and mixed by Ariel in his bedroom on an 8-track in the late 90s.
No longer a bedroom venture, Haunted Graffiti are now a fully realised band, comprised of Kenny Gilmore (keys / guitar / vocals), Aaron Sperske (drums / vocals) and Tim Koh (bass / vocals), all characters from the underground LA scene.
The album took nearly six months to complete, with around half of the record completed with Sunny Levine at the dials (the rest being self-produced and recorded), plus engineer Rik Pekkonen, who previously recorded many great 70s acts including Bill Withers, Seals & Crofts and Bread, all on show as ‘Before Today’ muddles glam rock, West Coast funk and Merseybeat harmonies.
For such a unique act, Haunted Graffiti manage to weave such a beguiling range of influences into their music. They can veer from the demented heavy metal of ‘Butt-House Blondies’ to the classic synth-rock of ‘I Can’t Hear My Eyes’, ‘Revolution’s A Lie’ with its pulsating motorik tints to their cover ‘Bright Lit Blue Skies’ (originally recorded by the Rocking Ramrods in 1966).

Tracklisting:

Hot Body Rub * Bright Lit Blue Skies * L’estat (acc. To The Widow’s Maid) * Fright Night (Nevermore) * Round and Round * Beverly Kills * Butt-House Blondies * Little Wig * Can’t Hear My Eyes * Reminiscences * Menopause Man * Revolution’s A Lie

Be the first to review this record. Best reviewer each month gets £10 off their next order!