ARTiST: Shocking Pinks
TiTLE: Shocking Pinks
LABEL: DFA
GENRE: Indie
TiME: 45:08 min
SiZE: 58,4 MB
BiTRATE: VBRkbps
RiP DATE: Sep-15-2007
RELEASE DATE: Sep-17-2007
WEBSiTE: n/a
Track List:
01. Wake Up 00:45
02. This Aching Deal 02:31
03. How Am I Not Myself? 02:28
04. Second Hand Girl 02:43
05. End Of The World 02:29
06. The Narrator 03:00
07. Yes! No! 02:59
08. Emily 02:12
09. Blonde Haired Girl 01:48
10. Victims 02:19
11. Girl On The Northern Line 04:11
12. I Want U Back 01:47
13. Smokescreen 03:04
14. Jealousy 02:57
15. Cutout 04:44
16. 23 02:08
17. You Can Make Me Feel Bad 03:03
Release Notes:
New Zealander Nick Harte's first release for James
Murphy's DFA Records is a splicing together of two
albums hitherto released only in his home country.
Shocking Pinks the album looks long in the
tracklisting, but lasts for just 45 minutes and
feels shorter still.
As the soundtrack to extreme snowboarding and
surfing videos, this record would work a treat.
Homespun atmospherics envelop Harte's stoner-grunge
vocals and multi-instrument multi-tracking, FX
pedals set to the max, from the off.
This Aching Deal sets the scene, showcasing muffled
cymbals under lyrics that are not always obvious,
sharing a shoegaze approach to words with Harte's
acknowledged heroes My Bloody Valentine. The
wall-of-sound noise he creates, with a preponderance
of guitars and bass in the soupy, cymbals-heavy mix,
turns the clock back to the beginning of the 1990s
and then reinvents the music of the time.
Blonde Haired Girl, weighing in at under two
minutes, is the addictive centrepiece with off-key
guitar squalls reminiscent of Souvlaki-era Slowdive
if they'd ever got agitated and cranked up the
tempo. Victims reminds of Nirvana's Turnaround but,
by contrast, the ethereal Girl On The Northern Line
more closely recalls the moods of the late Elliott
Smith, especially vocally, while musically sounding
very little like him. Later, Jealousy raises the
comparison again.
Smokescreen gets close to Murphy's LCD Soundsystem
kitchen-sink approach to percussion recording, but
is less about dance beats as creating an eerie,
otherworldly atmosphere. Again the lyrics are almost
unintelligible.
After the slight misfire of Prinzhorn Dance School,
DFA are back on track with this chilled, intriguing
record. As a compedium of two previous records, this
is a sign of where Harte was. On this evidence,
where he goes next will be well worth checking out.