a r t i s t : The Matinee Orchestra
t i t l e : The Matinee Orchestra
d a t e : 2006
l a b e l : Arable (Arable 6 CD)
g e n r e : Folk
r l s. d a t e : Mar/2006
t r a c k s : 08
b i t r a t e : VBRkbps
s i z e : 62,9 MB
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*Ripper's note: Tricky one to tag, this. The sleeve says 2005
but it's just out, so I put 2006. The genre was tough too, but
I went for Folk. Whatever it is, it's lovely. Enjoy!
Matinee is a word that's pleasant to say aloud. So is
orchestra. I suppose I could even stretch to say that the
label name (Arable) is a nice sounding word, too. This
project's name brings to mind the good old days of flickering
cinema, imaginations, live music, lazy days, and childlike
excitement in music.
The outer artwork further carries this childhood theme in its
unsophisticated drawing of the night sky with the moon,
clouds, and stars while inside, the sun rises over crude
semicircle-shaped hills. There is an ingenuousness, an
uncomplicated wonder and sense of innocence in the melodies
and layering of instrumentation.
So why isn't this just another folktronica release? What makes
it different? Well in this case, the laptop's helping to tell
the tale; it isn't the one doing the talking. This is a very
human, very fragile, and live-sounding collection. I don't
mean that it's a delicately constructed sounding piece. I mean
there is a sense that it feels as if the album is something
real and not an editing together of unrelated parts. It's like
it has been pieced together with something approaching real
care and heart. The Matinee Orchestra may well be Andrew
Hodson's baby (the producer, compiler, arranger, editor, and
writer), but he's courteous enough to go with the collective
name for the album and its reasonably extensive cast list.
Another reason why The Matinee Orchestra isn't just another
example of 'whatever' is that this LP starts with a
magnificent conclusion. The first pass through Thanking You
for Listening may leave a brief taste of sentimentality with
its twinkling xylophone, harmonious horns, wordless female
vocals. But this is soon utterly dismissed as it picks up a
warm, yet wintry charm unbowed by corniness and driven by joy;
a feeling of distinctly untwee, glorious, hard-to-hold
happiness. The song ends with night and the sound of crickets
and cars slowly passing. And after night comes the bird's dawn
chorus on the jam-packed instrumental Hide and Seek, which
immediately disarms any further cynicism with the voices of
children peppered throughout. The voices of children come
again on the second half of It's a Fantasy World / Everyone
Has the Right to Protest Even if No One Listens (a field
recording at an antiwar rally).
Hide and Seek flows into The Matinee March, a beautifully
unfolding, melodious piece of la-la-la-ing (and not a march).
In a few short minutes it goes from an introductory piece of
Wilson brothers' vocals to a Sunday afternoon Sparklehorse-
styled beauty with a loved up J.Mascis playing slow, sweetened
guitar.
Where a band like Tunng can sometimes be a little cold in
their introduction of electronic elements, the touches here
are warm and organic sounding. Run for Cover has playful horns
skirting around the guitar and vocals with bursts of rain-on-
glass and thunder FX. The electronic touches here barely
interrupt the flow, even the squiggles and on/off digital
facial of I'fll Never be Afraid Again. It's a Fantasy World /
Everyone Has the Right to Protest Even if No One Listens is a
late highlight (and a mouthful) with a very familiar and
hymnal sound. The whole song has an air of hope about it and
I'm not sure exactly why. The rippling rise-and-fall water
effect of the xylophone works with both the mild flute work
and its wilder, freer melodic parts.
There's a difficult to quantify hi-fi Daniel Johnston feeling
on the record too sometimes. For a virtually instrumental LP,
that's a difficult statement to justify, but there's an
innocence in the music that captures something of that man's
mood. Minus the obsessive stuff about that girl.
So how does an album close that began with an ending?
Imagination of a Watermelon, a beautiful, eye-watering violin
melody that swells and surges only to drift off into the sound
of the great outdoors.
To slap a big fat cliche on the album, this is a Smile for the
post-laptop generation, for people who get their daily fix of
magic from the sky or the birds. For people who don't need
their magic wrapped up in legends. I suppose this makes Mr.
Andrew Hodson the man with sand between his toes.
Scott McKeating
http://www.stylusmagazine.com/review.php?ID=3790
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01-Thanking You for Listening [06:18]
02-Hide & Seek [02:20]
03-The Matinee March [04:18]
04-I'll Never Be Afraid Again [07:44]
05-Run for Cover (It's Going to Rain) [03:12]
06-Pray, Rock, Stone, Paper, Scissors [04:13]
07-It's A Fantasy World [12:46]
(Everyone Has The Right to Protest Even If No One Liste
08-Imagination of a Watermelon [03:20]
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44:11 min