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...according to our Clinton on Fri 03 Sep, 2010.
Despite its slightly tinny production, the opening track on this double CD is a progressive pop gem referencing Jethro Tull, Stackridge and The Cardiacs and is obviously aiming for some kind of 'King Henry 8th on Ice' pomposity. Luckily, perhaps, by track two the whole thing has settled down a bit, some madcap arrangements mix with brilliant Byrdsian melodies. The album is a sprawling thing,track three 'Autoblue' is completely electronic, 'Alphaville' a superb pop song ...imagine the Stone Roses crossed with 'Andorra' era Caribou. Yet even at their straightest they go off on a techno feast half way through with post rock guitars suddenly bellowing out of nowhere. The album is hard to get a handle on and in the limited time we have here I am unable to dissect all 17 tracks (I'm not even going to attempt the 30 minute title track on the second CD). Surprisingly its the Sunday Telegraph who have summed it up best describing it as a mix of 'The Beta Band, early Stone Roses, gloomy Mancunian electronica, west coast psychedelia, krautrock'. I'd also venture comparison with the progressive likes of Mew, Oh No Ono.
* The Jojo Burger Tempest is the new album from the UK's finest electronic post-rock band Working For A Nuclear Free City, the follow-up to 2007’s Businessmen & Ghos (Rock Sound Album Of The Month etc..). And like that expansive debut, The Jojo Burger Tempest takes place across two discs, with 15 tracks on one and the 30-minute title track on the other.
* Everything about the album is epic. It was recorded over a period of 18 months in two distinctly different locations: a warehouse in the north of England and an isolated cottage in France. Over that period, the band laid down a few ideas a day and amassed some 2800 song ideas, despite claiming to suffer from writer’s block.
* The longform track on CD2 was created in a single day using ideas that had found no home elsewhere on the album, like DVD extras reworked into a new piece of art. Says Phil: “I'd always liked the idea of doing a mix-tape kind of track like Q-Bert, Shadow, Yoda, people like that, used to do with their mix tapes. It's not meant to be a prog rock tune, more of a collage. It was really fun way to work and felt like we were really doing something different.”
* Working For A Nuclear Free City formed around brothers Phil and Jon Kay and schoolfriend Gary McLure. Ed Hulme joined two days before the band’s first gig, cementing an unconventional line-up that doesn’t always have a singer, though Phil takes the majority of the vocals.
* Their relatively low-profile at home masks considerable US success. Having endured American tours so long and arduous that Gary was rushed to hospital in Texas and left minus three feet of intestines, the band were lauded by taste- making radio stations and blogs and nominated for 2007s Shortlist Prize (America’s Mercury Music Prize equivalent) alongside M.I.A., Feist, Wilco and Arcade Fire.
* At home, the band’s music has been licenced all over the shop, from the trailer to the latest Paul Greengrass / Matt Damon film 'Green Zone' to Playstation 3’s 'Infamous'.
* PREVIOUS PRESS:
- 8/10 IN NME: "THESE TRACKS COMBINE ACOUSTIC GUITARS WITH SOARING, MELODIC INDIE AND TIME- BENDING KRAUTROCK."
- WORD: "SHOEGAZING WITH BALLS."
- 4/5 IN SUNDAY TELEGRAPH: "THE BETA BAND, EARLY STONE ROSES..MILDLY GLOOMY MANCUNIAN ELECTRONICA, WEST COAST PSYCHEDELIA AND KRAUTROCK."
- CD1: 1. Do A Stunt 2. Silent Times 3. Autoblue 4. Alphaville 5. Pachinko 6. Faster Daniel Faster 7. A Black Square With
Four Yellow Stars 8. Black Rivers 9. Float Bridges 10. The King & June 11. B.A.R.R.Y. 12. Little Lenin 13. Inokashira Park 14. Low 15. Burning Drum 16. Brown Owl 17. Buildings
- CD2: The Jojo Burger Tempest
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Norman Records,
Unit 20, Croydon House,
Croydon Street,
Leeds,
LS11 9RT, UK.
Tel/fax: (+44) 0113 245 4399
Email: phil@normanrecords.com
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