GaBLe / CuTe HoRSe CuT
CD
LOAF Recordings / Released April 11th 2011
Is this the most sunshine-infused album of the year so far? Well, if the playful violins and upbeat chorus of Brick Trick are anything to go by, random interludes to one side, then the answer may well be yes.
Part experimental indie, part late afternoon festival electronica, and, oddly, part children’s story tape gone wrong, Gable describe their sound as ‘luxury DIY’. Whatever that actually means, we kind of get the notion. Agree or disagree though, once it becomes clear that this act was born in France everything makes a lot more sense. And not because there’s any Daft Punk inspired electro, rather thanks to the numerous eccentricities.
So two drummers (who play guitar) and a girl on a keyboard provide us with 18 tracks of neo-lunacy. But it’s also beautiful, in a kind of infantile, innocent way. “I was plotting in the trench, you came waving a wrench / You hit me right in the jaw, efficiently ending our war.” With lyrics like this, set to warm, synths and sliding, tonal distortion, it’s hard not to think of artists like Casiotone for the Painfully Alone, as down to Earth delivery and symbolic sincerity are set to an uplifting, lo-fi arrangement.
But then Gable’s sound seems to have roots in a greater number of influences. Take the traditional, bluegrass leaning Pills, a marriage of spoken word, folksy-comedy, banjo and crescendo-friendly tempo. The reality is undeniably odd, but the result is something that works, surprising as that may be. As does Samba de la Muerte, and it’s heart racing build of guitars. Cutting to the chase, despite the childlike accents, many of this CD’s contents are pure, seasoned emotion that’s aimed solely at big kids. Think Coco Rosie, with less gothic opera, and more men.
These moments stand side by side with a song about Guitar Dog- “a fierce Alsatian that bites and attacks at all times who needs to be calmed down by food“- and a track that begins with what is most surely a vacuum cleaner turned into an organ melody (0000). And that’s the best note to finish on, a grand summation of the creativity, bordering on madness, evident in almost everything here. A lot like little else we’ve ever heard, while this one won’t be for the majority, those that get it will fall in love shortly after.
