Never Enough Notes e-zine // reviews + interviews + music

MySpace: Asobi Seksu

Remember the days when 4AD used to release records by bands branded as ‘ethereal’ by the weekly music press? Y’know, Melody Maker would shoot their collective child-seeds all over their typewriters whenever Cocteau Twins trilled nanny-goat numb-sense over a sparkly guitar-chime, Dead Can Dance pummelled young frail eardrums with Turkish drums and dramatic Morricone-strings and Lush oozed their sexy feedback all over your cochlea like butter icing. And yet, no matter how hard journos would pigeonhole these wonderful warriors of effete loveliness, none of them fitted into any genre, sub-genre or sub-sub-genre. Asobi Seksu are right up there with them on this charming, tinkling, soothing set of acoustic chirrups fresh from a session at the historic Olympic Studios.

OK, normally the Seksu would be doing the power-pop thing so beloved of bands like Shonen Knife and Sandii and the Sunsets (I’m going back in time kiddies), but here (at the behest of label guru Derek Birkett) the duo ventured into the 50-year old studio with a keyboard, acoustic guitar and a spot of imaginative twiddling – and, boy, is it good? Yes – it is good. They have ransacked songs from their average back catalogue and turned those fidgety sparks into cooling lullabies.

Opening gambit, ‘Breathe Into Glass’ sits in the world of Nouvelle Vague having a wine and cheese party with Liz Fraser and Joanna Newsom. ‘Walk Into The Moon’ is a sister of Camera Obscura without the glitterball spinning above. ‘Suzanne’ is a cutesy and respectful cover of Mazzy Star’s forgotten track from the era of staring at shoes and, bugger my ripe old walnuts, doesn’t ‘Familiar Light’ sound just a bit like Nancy Sinatra circa ‘Some Velvet Morning’? Just a bit. Go with me here.

Often psychedelic, frequently pretty and always engaging, this is the ball-park Seksu should play in for the next album or so – not the nasty world of rah-rah-rah which they sometimes (not always) dabble with on the originals of these exquisite versions here. A worthy project indeed.

7.5/10

By Paul Pledger