Jack - Pioneer Soundtracks
Too Pure/Shock
Melancholia in the
'90s has a soundtrack.
And the band behind
it is called Jack. Their
1996 release went
absolutely nowhere in
Australia, but that's
okay because this album
isn't meant for
the mainstream. It's meant for
those who like their
despair accompanied by an orchestra, for
those who sit in
darkened rooms and befriend their muse.
Up first is the
song Pulp would have shot themselves in the
crinolene for and
"...of Lights" is blatantly lyrically and vocally
Cocker-esque ('in
a cafe over coffee, he remembers Rachael
and how her wrists
were like China'). Get my drift?
"Wintercomessummer"
and "White Jazz" are defiantly upbeat,
a sort of deepbreath
before plunging into the downward spiral
Jack then traces...
Pioneer Soundtracks
doesn't fail to slightly surprise or be as
lush as you expect
such an album to be. Jack's vocalist has an
amazing, smooth
voice, although it sometimes teeters on the
ripoff stage, nevertheless,
they have managed to make the
perfect album for
rainy Sunday afternoons and sunless
mindsets...Even
if this band split up tomorrow, it would have
earned a place among
the Dog Man Star's, the The Bends and
The World Won't
Listen's of Uk Music. Turn out the lights,
plug in the eaphones
and turn it up to 8. Such elegant misery
cannot be shared.
Taylor
Taken from the chester
fanzine
JACK
Pioneer Soundtracks
(Too Pure/CD/LP)
PEOPLE DRIVE very
slowly past car crashes. In spite of
ourselves, some
of us are perversely entertained at the expense
of others, with
disturbing regularity. Similarly, when all's said and
done, a trip inside
the tawdry, indecent world of another human's
sorry soul can be
thrilling; but only if it lasts for a short time.
Jack are intimately
aware of this. One song in and they're already
heroically summing
up the concept behind their debut LP.
"These are beautiful
songs for ugly children", croons
Anthony Reynolds.
Oh yes, '...Of Lights' an epic,
string-smacked opener,
roughly to London what Pulp's 'Sex
City' is to Sheffield
transports us to a seedy "warehouse off
the river" where
"a daughter is raped". We have entered the
Jack Zone
we will be degraded, but with style. The obvious
reference point
is Scott Walker, for the overblown
drama. The less
obvious one is Dexy's for the
sense of multiple
band members posing as Victorian
street children.
But the reason that 'Pioneer Soundtracks' really
conquers is that
Jack, like Animals That Swim, render the tried
and tested Tindersticks
formula near-useless by making it that bit
more obvious. Bolstered,
in this case, by the deep, sophisticated
swoops of their
vocalist.
In an age where Noel
Gallagher is slobbered over for something
as banal as melding
words with music a bit neatly (like, wow!),
you could be tempted
to call Anthony Reynolds 'ambitious'. But
in an ideal world,
more would spew majestic lines like his, or, as
is often the case,
have the gumption to waste them in an arrogant
mumble.
Conceptually, it
could all be bollocks. But by the end of 'Pioneer
Soundtracks', the
tendency to give the slightest f whether Jack
are middle-class
fakers or not has vanished; and their brutal
honesty does nothing
but impress. For anyone who's ever sat up
through the night
despairing at what a shit place this planet really
is, yet longing
to take themselves above it all this band
understand you soooo
well. 8/10
Tom Cox
Review courtesy of
NME
Jack
Pioneer Soundtracks
(Too Pure/Flying In)
First there was James,
now there's Jack. So British bands are getting their monikers from 500
Popular Children's Names - at least there's more imagination to be found
in the music. With flashbacks to the old Manchester sound (although I'd
wager they're from Oxford or somewhere in Greater London), Jack create
a dark world of adolescent angst set against broad orchestral sweeps and
driving guitars. Lyrically they'd knock Noel Gallagher into a cocked hat
but they'd probably chainsaw off limbs for one of his big, radio-friendly
hooks. It's the difference between music that's built and music that flows.
Still, there's a lot to commend in this debut album. Jack like to tell
stories - alcohol, off-licences and girls feature quite strongly - and
there's kind of an eighties throwback quality to a lot of the material
that reminds me of folks like David Sylvian, the light and dark thing and
that same slightly constructed feel he used to have. The tracks range from
energetic outpourings to meandering, ornate pieces that would probably
be better placed hanging off the side of a bit of film, but then, they
did call the album Pioneer Soundtracks. As in Dark Room With a View I'd
wager. I'd hate togo out drinking with them, they'd be far too morose,
but I might hang on to their album for a while.
Michael Lamb
JACK
Pioneer Soundtracks
***1/2
(Too Pure/American/Warner)
These are ugly stories for ugly children.
The repetitive chorus
line from lead track "Of Lights" perhaps says more about Pioneer Soundtracks
than
any words of my
own could capture.
From Cardiff, Wales,
the band "Jack" embodies a cross between Scott Walker's sombre crooning
of the
'60s crossed with
his way-out experimental masterpiece Tilt from 1994 (as a matter of fact,
Tilt producer
Peter Walsh is on
board here).
Much of the outcome
falls vaguely in the hypnotic Tindersticks/Red House Painters camp with
the
occasional descent
into tender-morbid Nick Cave territory.
Airy pop melodies
collide with abstract, sometimes dissonant elements that smack of druggy
improvisation. Heavy baroque
orchestration engages
in dominance/submission struggles with
samples, found voices,
Velvet Underground guitars, and
cocktail crooning
from some nightclub of the damned.
Sumptuous and intimate
yet enigmatic and unsettling; decadent
but drawing the
listener back in. Picture the film
Trainspotting set
in Twin Peaks with Danny Boyle and Angelo Badalamenti agonizing over the
soundtrack
content.
Two striking up-tempo
numbers break the languid brooding. "White Jazz" weds a truculently abrasive
orchestra meltdown
with a nihilistic punkish rant, as if Velvets graduate John Cale's brain
had been
transplanted into
Stooges-era Iggy Pop's body (the phased, counterpoint cries of "YES! YES!
YES!,"
while not translating
effectively on paper/screen, are positively cathartic). "Biography of a
First Son"
continues the menacing
tone, but in a Cave meets faux-spaghetti-western setting.
Jack
Pioneer Soundtracks
(Too Pure/American)
Attempting to diversify their sound, the boys at Too Pure have a surprising addition to their roster. For those expecting yet another Faith Healers reunion or something along those lines... let's just say that you can put your Can records back up on the shelf.
Unlike most of their label mates, Jack brand of low-key pop does not lie in the Kraut-rock vein. Hailing from Britain, this seven member outfit sounds a lot like an amalgam of Gene and Shed Seven with Tim Booth on vocals.
Frontman Anthony Reynolds' lyrics border on the macabre. Needless to say, these poetic meanderings quickly turn melodramatic and cheesy. This, coupled with sparse horn arrangements and a string section, will certainly make any blue collar roots-rocker cringe in agony.
Most of the songs
on Pioneer Soundtracks lack character. Granted, some of the material is
catchy, yet it pales in comparison to the work of established contemporaries
such as the Tindersticks, Gallon Drunk, Nick Cave or the Bathers. There
is little depth or distinction to make Pioneer Soundtracks stand out among
the heaps of Euro-trash making its way across the Atlantic.
Perhaps a little
"Mother Sky" wouldn't be so bad after all.
Raf Studzinski
Courtesy of Vox