fatandconfused

Hauschka – Room to Expand (FatCat)

There’s a rather strange little booklet that comes with this release, I’d looked through it previously only to conclude that it was just a book full of pictures of pieces of a piano, not that interesting really and no justice to what is really quite a beautiful little album, a joyous experiment in piano and electronics, anyhow on a more recent inspection there is a letter enclosed, a letter written out of desperation perhaps, the way sometimes you just need to put the thoughts in your head onto paper, the way sometimes no matter how much you fill your mind with other things, a certain girl may never truly leave your mind “its about me being ready to use all life has to offer to get you back like writing this letter which I’m going to launch into the air maybe from a bridge into traffic or leave it lying on a café table or put it in a bottle & throw out to sea in hope it somehow finds its way to you or starts a chain of events that brings you back to me…whatever it takes” the way sometimes that you will constantly run through events and conversations and wonder how if you had said something different perhaps things wouldn’t have turned out like they did. “I had no idea you thought these things were ugly and weird and you HAVE to know that me not saying anything about them was NOT because I didn’t care it was to do with my head being full of meteorites and dancing bears because I was/am so so in love with you…”

Still things happen and normally for a reason, at times whatever you say will be the wrong thing to say and its sometimes best to say nothing at all, such is the case with Hauschka, gorgeous piano laments much in the same vein as Adrian Klumpes and Eluvium, occasionally veering off into spy themes such as mid way through Chicago Morning & Belgrade as the trombones signal low and all serious, jazzy and slightly Tortoise like. Paddington captivates as it canters along in its plinky plonky fashion a sister track perhaps to Sweet Spring Come both full of spring and deep bass lines encouraging the listener to nod in time and think of sunnier days and new life. Zahnlucke also takes advantage of the extremes of the piano scale, deep bass notes are tap danced to by twinkling fingers of ice against a glass window.

At times its similar to Max Richter and the September Collective though not on quite a grand scale as particularly the former, beautiful all the same and well worth your attention.

www.fat-cat.co.uk
http://www.myspace.com/hauschka

Blood on The Wall – Awesomer (FatCat)

When your shopping in Tesco, you know that if you want to really treat yourself, if you want to be satisfied by what you purchase in almost every commodity under the sun, you look for the Tesco finest sign. The Luxury range, the extra mile, the guarantee of quality. The same can be said of Fat Cat Records of Brighton, no matter what they release, whatever the genre whatever the band, they come up trumps so much so that I have resorted to purchasing simply by seeing the little cat logo in the corner of the record. Again with Blood on the Wall I’m not disappointed, it’s a bit rawer than the kind of thing I would usually go for but somehow I love it to bits and its fast becoming one of my favourite discoveries of recent times which is saying something considering I bought it without the support of reviews, simply on the merit of the label that released it.
I’d Like to Take You Out is Jesus and the Mary Chain for beginners yet you can forgive them cos they do it so well, Mary Susan is bordering on Grunge yet again its Grunge of the highest variety. I have argued for a long time that almost all genres are acceptable it just so happens that you only ever hear the average output of such genres, if you dig deep enough you will find something good or just let FatCat do the work. Hey, Hey carries the same anger that makes McClusky such an attractive band, hopelessly heavy and stupidly good. Can You Hear Me, Stoner Jam and Rite To Light also impress amongst a generally very fine album for them times you feel like a good old scream. I heart Blood on the Wall.

www.fat-cat.co.uk
www.myspace.com/bloodonthewall