CAPITOL K
Notes From Life On The Wire With A Wrecking Ball
FAI007
Faith & Industry 2008
12 Tracks. 41mins05secs

A true oddball and maverick artist, Kristian Craig Robinson has been carting his Capitol K funfair around for just under ten years, crafting genuinely exciting little electronic and electro indie pop gems onto four albums, five if the two different versions of Island Row are to be counted as separate records, and countless EPs. First a member of the rather exclusive Planet Mu club, he has, since 2003, set up his own imprint, Faith & Industry, and has been releasing his work via this outfit ever since. Robinson is a citizen of the world in the purest meaning of the term. Born in Malta, he grew up in Brunei, he now lives in squats in and around London. To suit his chosen lifestyle, the latest Capitol K adventures were recorded in rudimentary conditions in a squat situated on the east on London, with contributions from Italian jazz drummer Vladimiro Carboni and Brazilian guitarist Felipe Pagani, alongside who he played as part of Brazilian songstress Cibelle’s tour band a couple of years ago.

Like on his last couple of releases, Robinson is found here in good pop form, but for this release, he seems in much happier and upbeat mood. More than ever, his songs are playful and seem to work on a variety of levels, all intricately linked yet strangely independent from each other. The two songs that recently appeared as a limited 7″ release, Go Go Go and Libertania, are present here, and appear stronger than they did when displayed on their own. Capitol K hasn’t forgotten about his original all-out electronic persona of his early days, as demonstrated in the fun acidulated squelches of Acid Favela, and electronics are very much present throughout, but the sound palette displayed is much wider and eclectic. On Freak, Robinson and co. wrestle with the broken beat of a moody jazz/funk groove, while on Drum St, Capitol K dresses this sweet song in colourful indie attires.

Elsewhere, the disarmingly child-like angle of Bomb Bomb contrast very much with the nature of what inspired the song, the 2005 terrorist attacks in London, but this very much demonstrates what Capitol K is about. Very much like life itself, Robinson juxtaposes the unadulterated fun and the deadly serious in compact little vignettes which are dispatch in no particular order of preference. Although everyday life and topical news undeniably feed Robinson’s creative fire, it is with his own little tales that is excels, nowhere more than on the exceedingly brilliant The Fly, which slowly builds momentum as layers are added over a chaotic rhythmic pattern, while Robinson nonchalantly sings about a fly in his room.

Faithful to the nature of his work, Capitol K’s fifth proper album is a thoroughly enjoyable and fun record, which shows off life for what it is and doesn’t take itself too seriously. But, like his previous efforts, Notes From Life On The Wire With A Wrecking Ball works on many different levels and evolves in a variety of dimensions, each listen giving it much more relief and depth than the previous.

4/5

Capitol K | Faith & Industry
Buy: CD