a r t i s t : Catlandgrey
t i t l e : St
d a t e : 2006
l a b e l : Milk and Moon (MILKMOON02)
g e n r e : Folk
r l s. d a t e : Oct/2006
t r a c k s : 08
b i t r a t e : VBRkbps
s i z e : 40,8 MB
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*Ripper's note: there's an untitled hidden track tagged on to
the end of track 8, after about a minute's silence. It's a lo
-fi version of track 1 sung in French.
Eerie stuttering fostpolk / folktronica with a taste for
sunshine and Temesta, by Nick Grey & Nihiruneko. An oneiric,
surreal & psychedelic trip to the World Mountain.
catlandgrey is available in hand-numbered black digipak from
www.milkandmoon.com
A gentle, floating, magical, fairy-tale like collection of
dreamy and melancholic pieces by a singer-songwriter from a
galactical time-fold.
Keeping his Classical influences in mind it can hardly come as
a big surprise that Nick Grey is the son of great Romanian
opera singer Vasile Moldoveanu. The latter still defies all
rules of modern marketing by refusing to submit to the usual
promotion routine. Just like him, Nick has a soft spot for
maintaining a private and intimate relationship with his
listeners. Although his albums have regularly made the
headlines with some of the bigger mags out there, he continues
to release at smaller outfits. For catlandgrey, his co-
operation with Japanese guitar-philosopher Nihiruneko, he has
even reverted to taking care of things all by himself,
publishing it on his tiny milk and moon imprint. And, to put
it bluntly: Thank god for that.
Which is not to say that Regal Daylight, which was his first
truly internationally distributed effort, was any worse for
the fact that it received some decent promotion. Quite on the
contrary, this miracle mile of timeless glory still shines
brightly as being experimental, accessible, contempary,
timeless, cooly conceived and romantically inclined. All at
the same time, of course. But it is question of common sense
that some of the gifts this limited release has to offer,
probably would not have made it to the production plan with a
global player. The creepy animal hand-puppet for example, or
the bizarre artificial eye, popping out of the CD tray, when
you open it for the first time. And who knows, whether this
funny little gecko would have made it to the cover. Which
brings us right to the core of the matter, for animals play an
inportant role on this record and not only, because Nihiruneko
is said to have contributed some owl-howls (where are they,
though?). Instead, a lion from another star makes his lyrical
appearance and so do camels, if only in the accompanying
booklet. Contrary to what one might now be inclined to think,
in stark contrast to song titles such as Dead Fabrizio (A
Galaxy of Ever Exploding Gondolieri) and in right-out
contradiction to the press info (which strangely talks about
eerie stuttering fostpolk), catlandgrey has not turned into a
far-out psychedelic jam session, but has instead become a
gentle, floating, magical, fairy-tale like collection of
dreamy and melancholic pieces by a singer-songwriter from a
galactical time-fold. Nihiruneko's salty guitar chords drop
like tears onto Nick's comforting vocal chords, then flow in
circles round a lonesome tree on a deserted desert plane.
Basically, these would be traditional folk songs, if it
weren't for the samples of clapping audiences, public speeches
about 'ship wrecks', japanese poems, castanets, cars driving
by, undiscernable creatures roaring in the distance and a
choir singing ahooo!. But however varied the instrumentation,
the basis always consists of a simple harmonic pattern, a sad
melody, the guitar and maybe the cello.
Some will call this an album for autumn, but it works just as
well on an oppressively sultry summer evening, with the noises
of the street and the last lights of the setting sun trickling
in through the open window. These two artists have found a
common language, which obviously has nothing do with words.
Which is another reason, why ügcatlandgreyüh is better off
without the help of a smoothly running promotion machinery --
none of their cool slogans could ever capture the essence of
this release, without sacrificing its meaning. Neither can
this review, of course. But as long as this duo continues to
communicate with us thorugh their music, they are more than
welcome to further defy the rules of modern marketing (and our
interview requests).
By Tobias Fischer
http://www.tokafi.com/newsitems/cd-feature-catlandgrey/
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01-The Night Before Thanksgiving (Tale Of Jesus Jose) [04:27]
02-An Attempt To Reach The Hand Of God (Lacking Rythm) [06:27]
03-Interlude (Excerpt From A Bald Cell's Diary) [01:28]
04-Dead Fabrizio (A Galaxy Of Ever Exploding Gondolieri) [05:00]
05-Interlude (The Angry Footballer) [01:55]
06-The Colony (Or Why We Forgot To Board) [02:20]
07-Interlude (Summoning Of The She-Ghosts) [01:32]
08-A Yet Untitled, Incomplete Song [10:47]
(but featuring the word LIMOUSINE)
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33:56 min