My Kumquat CD01 has arrived and first of all, a big thank you for
Fred Church's selfless generosity : beautifully packaged in its
custom designed cardboard box, the CD itself in cellophane and as
others have commented, the artwork is colourful and very well put
together in a rather Alince in Wonderland way. I was expecting a
CD-R; however this is a very professional product : well done,
Kumquat!
On to the music itself.
These kumquats have been reared on a diet of steroids! Chock-full
of frenetic ideas, none outstay their welcome; although none seem
fully expanded either - there's promise of something really nice
blossoming, but before it gets a chance to develop, we're onto the
next segment. Slow down, slow down!!
Personally, I am not a fan of spoken word samples, and here and
there I catch a phrase about a horse and Corn Flakes - but
goodness knows what they're on about... :-) The sounds
themselves are a lot of fun : everything is shot through with a good
sense of humour and quite a bit of it is reminiscent of 80's synth
pop, even to the point of guitar-driven chordery.
Being a short 40 minutes total, I've put the disc on repeat and it's
beginning to gel, here and there I recognise snippets as they come
round. Pick a favourite? The Windmills of the Fairies, with its
mellifluous Dutch vocals. This one seems to me the most
musically coherent and with the volume up loud it's got a nice
driving bassline. I get occasional weird flashbacks of Wagon
Christ/Vibert and I have a feeling that the more I play this, the more
I'll enjoy it.
Is this the only copy on the African continent? Ha! I'm honoured
and will be playing it to various friends soon.
I
*
np : everyone is afraid of clowns