If Fort Lauderdale’s second album, Time
Is Of The Essence, released just over two years
ago, appeared rather anachronic with its airs of Victorian
lady en promenade, Pretty Monster seems even
more disconnected from the reality of modern music,
as if nothing could touch the perverse approach the
band take on their work.
Formed in 1999, Fort Lauderdale, aka Toby Jenkins and
Steve Webster, released their first album, 1001
Revolutions, in 2000 on Worm Interface. Blending
together elements of electronic, hip-hop and easy listening,
the pair started to shape their unusual sonic territory
with uncannily precise little vignettes. Time
Of The Essence, released in 2001, marked the
beginning of their collaboration with Memphis Industries.
If they retained some elements of their original sonic
landscape, this second album combined the pair’s
fascination for the work of Erick Satie and good old-fashioned
song structures into something that was as surprising
and disconcerting as it was charming and fresh.
The fruit of a year of intense daily recording sessions,
Pretty Monster is by far the most intricate
and complex piece of work Fort Lauderdale have produced
so far. Gone are the hip-hop flavours, the quirky electronics
and the soft exotica. Here, Fort Lauderdale fast-forward
to the late sixties/early seventies and give their very
own psychedelic interpretation of music. Toby Jenkins
already explored similar territories on last year’s
excellent Transverberations,
released under his Squire
Of Somerton guise. Here though, the approach to
melodies is closer to that found on Time
Is Of The Essence. The beautiful Prey To
The Stars, Best Boy, My Vacant Mind
or Force Of Nature show the pair’s extreme
maturity at developing complex tunes, while the raucous
As A Boy, May The Scene Lasts A Thousand
Years or the excellent Rock’n’Roll
are perfect testimonials of the band’s equally
strong ability at carving powerful orchestrations. Pretty
Monster appears to sometimes hesitate between the
pair’s desire to retain the passé tones
of its predecessor and the hypnotic wanderings of a
more recent period, giving it a slightly uneven feel.
When the combination works, the songs retain the cinematic
nature of Fort Lauderdale’s earlier work, perhaps
best expressed on tracks such as Silent Ways,
probably one of the strongest moments here, in which
Webster and Jenkins take the Beatles circa Sgt Pepper
for tea at Satie’s country residence, or on the
epic Force Of Nature, but when they try too
hard, as on the grandiloquent The Chilling Place,
they temporarily loose control of their baroque ship
and end up crashing down heavily.
Pretty Monster surely sounds like very little
else around. Far from the realm they once emerged from,
Fort Lauderdale continue to build their precious world
away from preying eyes. Despite a few faux pas, this
third album proves a fascinating affair that is very
unlikely to leave anyone cold.
3.7/5 |
