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:: Release Info:
::
:: Artist......> Duplex!
:: Title.......> Ablum
:: Label.......> Mint Records
:: Genre.......> Indie
:: Rip.Date....> 07.27.2005
:: Street.Date.> 00.00.0000
:: Source......> CDDA
:: Quality.....> VBRkbps - Full Stereo
:: Play Time...> 39:10 min
::
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:: Track Listing:
::
:: 01. Yr Mama
:: 02. Hanu
:: 03. Salad Song
:: 04. Best Little Boy
:: 05. Mr. Slim
:: 06. Multiplication Treehouse
:: 07. Figure 8
:: 08. Freaky Rhesus
:: 09. I Am A Robot
:: 10. Dna
:: 11. Dear Emily
:: 12. Lookit Me!
:: 13. Nucat
:: 14. Camels in the Desert
:: 15. Bethlehem
:: 16. Lament of the House Rabbit
:: 17. Heatin' Up the Milk
:: 18. Pooing and Peeing
::
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:: Release Notes:
::
:: Duplex!
:: Ablum
:: Mint Records
::
:: The sincerest applause for an album of songs written for kids
:: would be getting the approval of both the parents and the
:: kids. My test subject, my six-year-old daughter, who will try
:: and dance and sing along to anything, was instantly
:: "involved" with this record: she danced, she bobbed her head,
:: and she sang along. There were a few moments where she
:: thought the recording was too silly, or a strange joke, like
:: the very short track "I am a Robot" by three-year-old Abe
:: Caruso who speaks a few words and the "song" transitions to a
:: wheezy toy instrument jam. But those moments of disbelief
:: were few, and from the first familiar "one two buckle my
:: shoe" to the goofy sounding "pooing and peeing" she was
:: having a grand old time.
::
:: Duplex! is a collaborative effort of a bunch of musicians who
:: live in the same duplex house in Vancouver. The adults
:: involved were Veda Hille, Annie Wilkinson (of Great Aunt Ida
:: and the Beekeepers), Justin Kellam (of p:ano), Matt Caruso
:: (of the Beekeepers), and Shaun Brodie (of the Neins). The
:: kids were Saoirse Soley, who's 11 and plays electric guitar,
:: organ, nose trumpet and kielbasa; Sierra Terhoch, also 11, on
:: piano, fake strings, and maracas; and Abe Caruso, aged 3, who
:: plays harmonica, xylophone and rattles. And everybody sings!
::
:: The music is largely taken care of by the adults, who venture
:: through pop, rock, and ska. Surprisingly, or maybe not, the
:: parents aren't "running the show". There are three songs
:: written by 11-year-olds Saoirse and Sierra, plus they
:: co-wrote "Lament of the House Rabbit" with Veda. Abe is
:: credited for "I am a Robot", and there's a cover from
:: Schoolhouse Rock by Bob Dorough. The remaining songs are fun
:: and mostly nonsensible, or only barely educational. The
:: leadoff "Yr Mama" riffs quickly through some familiar
:: melodies, includes a kids' chant of "don't tell me, I know
:: already" and possibly a nod to the Ramones "gabba gabba hey"
:: and a jazzy trumpet and building to a choir of everyone
:: singing "we don't want to go to bed!"
::
:: The songs are generally short. The deliriously frantic
:: "Lookit me!" is just over a minute-and-a-half long. The music
:: is from the toy circus They Might Be Giants school, the
:: lyrics by the 11-year-olds are either parodying an
:: attention-starved couple of kids or it's a documentary.
::
:: The audience age for this eclectic collection would be maybe
:: 4 to 9. Older kids would appreciate the slivers of Japanese
:: and Italian in "Mr. Slim" and the existential angst of
:: "Lament of the House Rabbit", but would be embarrassed by
:: "Pooing and Peeing". Even Sierra seems to be hamming it up or
:: talking it down while sideshow barking the intro to
:: "Multiplication Treehouse," where she whips through a little
:: of the 6 times table. Veda picks it up a little more
:: seriously in a "Figure 8," starting slow and quietly with
:: just vocals and piano. After going through the times table
:: once the rest of Duplex! joins in and... wow, it's just
:: catchy as heck.
::
::
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::
:: RiP iN PeACe!
::
::
::
::....................................................................