ARTIST: Santa Cruz
TITLE: After Supper
LABEL: Hasta Luego Recordings
GENRE: Indie
TIME: 46:47 min
SIZE: 70,2 MB
RIP DATE: May-30-2005
RELEASE DATE: May-23-2005
WEBSITE: www.santacruzband.net
Track List:
01. Sad Ugly Boy (Part 1) 03:38
02. The Wrath Of God 02:10
03. Clank Of Gear 03:03
04. Broken Arrow 05:14
05. Sad Ugly Boy (Part 4) 00:52
06. The Abel And The Cain 04:26
07. Baby Baboons 02:34
08. Flowers For My Friend 04:09
09. After Supper 02:47
10. Dead For Sleep 03:45
11. Sad Ugly Boy (Part 2) 01:40
12. All Trace Fades 05:03
13. Falling At Least 07:26
Release Notes:
Belgium seems an unlikely country to export this
brand of red-eyed electro-Americana but Santa Cruz
have obviously been taking notes on artists like
Mark Linkous and Kurt Wagner and, in their debut
æAfter SupperÆ they prove themselves worthy
disciples of those ingenious multi-instrumentalists.
Less techno-inebriated than Grandaddy but more
accessible than, say, Sparklehorse, they flaunt a
host of influences from Flaming Lips to My Morning
Jacket to Lambchop. The ghosts of these bands are
all there, parading shamelessly before you, but
something curiously æotherÆ is also lurking in the
mix and it is that extra ingredient that makes this
album memorable. The deliciously dreary piano
ballad, æAfter SupperÆ opens proceedings with a
reflective gloominess that remains a motif
throughout. How someone called Pierre-Vital Gerard
can sound so naturally American mystifies me but his
vocals never sound in the least bit affected.
Despite the tenebrous lyrics (a sad machine/on
repeat/plays your dreams/on the beat) æFlowers for
My FriendsÆ is every bit the summery singalong
single, a flicker of sunshine in an otherwise
charcoal sky. Riffing away on his proudly described
ælittle cheap electric guitarÆ , P-V steers the song
into Teenage Fanclub Territory with a rising chorus
shimmering with harmonies. Electronica noodles away
in the background but, as on all the other tracks,
the computer stuff is subtle and artfully
restrained. Bruno Green, sounding like a continental
Kurt Wagner, takes over on the darker tracks like
æClank of GearÆ and, notably, æDead For SleepÆ a
string-heavy mini-symphony about a dying body
seeping blood into the earth. Apart from the
occasional frivolous moment, this is a dark and
serious album without any of the irony or wry humour
their American cousins use to such effect. Hardly a
failing but perhaps indicative of something
intrinsically European. In what seems to be slightly
forced eccentricity, the song æSad Ugly BoyÆ is a
triumvirate in parts 1, 2 and 4. (WhatÆs the story
on Part 3?) Performed as fragments and scattered
through the album, æSad Ugly BoyÆ could be a Neil
Young primer (though not, I hope, the inspiration of
the song); Part one has the acoustic innocence of
Harvest, part two the denser, wiser Harvest Moon
and, in part 4, the thrashy riffing of Live Rust.
The closing track, 'Falling at LeastÆ is the longest
at over 7 minutes and neatly encapsulates what Santa
Cruz does best; spare acoustic guitar over washes of
synthesizers, fragile half-spoken vocals riding over
bursts of electronica, power chords trembling away,
drums rolling and breaking like a crashing tide.
This is a pretty hot debut and, again, a strong
example of how European bands assimilate and
reinvent what used to be a purely American sound.