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artist · victor malloy
release · trying
year · 2001
genre · lo-fi
label · inertia
catalogue · inert-15
website · www.inertia.co.uk
date · 31-may-2005
quality · alt-preset standard
source · vinyl
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a1 trying 4:01
a2 trying (adult baby remix) 4:24
b1 reverend johnsons lament 1:06
b2 mother savage part 1 5:01
playtime · 00h 14m 32s
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the first thing we should do, this being victor malloy's
biography, is point out that victor malloy doesn't actually exist.
monsieur malloy is, in fact, the alter-ego, the persona, the nom
de beatz of 27 year-old production whizz russ jones and singer/
photographer kenny mackracken.
an essex lad and a glaswegian, respectively, the duo met in
brighton, when a local writer asked kenny to recite a short story
over music scored by russ. in a way, that explains a lot. it's a
very victor malloy scenario. on the other hand, it's a total
accident.
kenny, 31, grew up on boney m and the three degrees. and still
loves both. russ, meanwhile, was in musical purgatory. "i had no
musical upbringing. my dad had one record, jennifer rush's 'the
power of love', which he played every fucking day. so, it's
bizarre that i decided i wanted to do music. maybe it's living in
small town essex and a desperate need to get out."
left alone to follow his instincts - he didn't even talk music
with his elder brother, lee (better known as electronicist hefner)
until much later - russ got into 50's rock 'n' roll and, later,
jazz. and not just the cool stuff like coltrane and parker either.
no, russ quickly gravitated to trad. 1920's jazz. soon, he was one
of britain's few b-boy skaters with a big thing for django
reinhardt. "i wasn't some really weird kid, that sounds too
dramatic, but i've always been a bit of an outcast, taste-wise.
no-one around essex was really into music. all my mates now, grew
up in areas where everybody listened to hip-hop and everybody
skated, and, near me, i was the only person."
while kenny was managing glasgow's volcano, "the club out of
trainspotting", and the sub club, russ was making his first forays
into music, as one-half of pork records' akotcha. their 1997
album, 'sound burger', put russ at the heart of the zeitgeist.
but, in retrospect, he hates it: "it was the 'headz'-era, very
loopy, very beaty and mind-numbingly boring."
it convinced russ that you have to follow your own path. 2001's
'the musings of monsieur malloy" was original in more ways than
one. first, it mixed trad 'n' cool jazz with deep kruder &
dorfmeister dub. secondly, it heavily sampled russ' prostitute
neighbour. "she lived upstairs and seemed to specialise in group
sessions, and she had the most unbelievably loud, over-the-top
fake orgasm sound. you'd have three or four guys up there and her,
all making noise, and i used to record it all."
despite this, '...musings...' was a deeply cool record. from the
fluid sophistication of the grooves to the iconic 60's jazz
artwork, it took itself pretty seriously. "it was all about
creating this malloy character, this gauloise smoking french guy,
a black and white, jean paul belmondo kind of thing."
'lions...', however, is a different beast altogether.
"we could have been anything that we wanted to be... if you
weren't such a slag." 'could've been anything'.
kenny: "the record label were saying, you can't say 'slag', but
that's the whole thing. it was quite a cheery kind of love song
and if you don't have that turn of phrase, start to make it a bit
nasty, it's just too cheesy."
funny. sad. whacked-out. beautiful. russ and kenny's baby is a
feast of electro-acoustic psychedelia - trip-pop, if you like - a
perfect distillation of kenny's guitar-band heritage and russ'
jazzbo past. recorded on a mac in russ' bedroom, yet stuffed with
melodicas, banjos and ukeleles, we're talking sky high lo-fi,
budget brian wilson-style invention. like recent efforts by
parsley sound, fort lauderdale and blue states, 'lions...' takes
the best elements of 60's and 70's folk-rock songwriting and
recasts them amid electronic glitches and pre-programmed beats,
kenny's mellifluous voice rubbing melodic balm into these
elaborate yet slightly scruffy confections. it is way-out
retro-futurism - a boon for anyone whoever built-up to the beta
band or the bees.
from 'tallyvan armies' (about the ice cream van turf wars in 60's
glasgow) to the sweet/ sinister voyeurism of electro-folk single,
'girl in the hood', there is, says russ, "no formula". field
recordings of table tennis are used for percussion next to ornate
sweeps of strings, "valentine whores" rub shoulders with obscure
references to john craven's newsround. the duo love a well-turned
phrase and a sense of mystery, fragmented stories left open to
interpretation. "the way we write lyrics is quite strange,"
explains kenny, "writing down fairly disjointed sentences, just
trying to think a bit more abstract, so there's no definite story.
we leave it up to the listener to decide what the hell they want
to make out of it."
"i guess it's i just don't want to be cool anymore," ponders russ,
as he tries to explain the difference between 'lions...' and the
debut malloy album. "i want to have fun. i don't want to be this
very serious, depressed musician. you've got to have humour." the
result is a baroque record that nonetheless brims with warm,
whimsical good vibes. seriously wasted single, 'night in vegas',
is a case in point. "we wrote it while we had a hangover after a
friend of mine's wedding," recalls russ, of this poptastic badly
drawn drinking song."it was a real big event, an amazing party,
and kenny and i were the last ones to drop about 12 o'clock the
next day, drinking pure gin, going, 'come on, let's get really
pissed', which we obviously already were. we slept all day and
that night i had the worse hangover i've ever fuckin' had. that
was 'night in vegas'."
then there's 'condiment junkie', which may, yet, surface as a
b-side. "it's, basically, about loving condiments," enthuses
kenny. "it's fuckin' hilarious. it's got this kind of 80's disco
beat and a only fools and horses rant, rhyming off all the
condiments." but, then, this is a band who care about their food.
"i'd much rather spend my evenings eating nice cheeses and
drinking red wine than be out at a club," insists russ.
where all this leaves victor malloy is a moot point. russ and
kenny are at right angles to the world. and that's the way they
like it. "no, it's not trendy or anything," wonders russ. "i did
an interview with this guy from portuguese radio for the last
album and he said one of the best things someone's ever said to
me. he said, 'how can someone who lives in the middle of the world
make an album that's so spaceless and timeless?', and that's the
best compliment i've ever had. i'm definitely not the most
involved person in hip popular culture. i have my own tastes."
and there, perhaps, you have it. 'lions and tigers and bears' - a
record for people who love music for, and of, itself, rather than
as a fashion accessory. a curiosity from a world beyond coldplay.
a cerebral sonic adventure with a sense of humour. a magical
missive from victor malloy.
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