Review of Sugarfoot in Hot Press Magazine, Ireland - March 2003
Taking lo-fi to mesmerising new places,cane141 combine dreamy electro synths,soprano and folk vocals,gentle guitar picking,digital beats and haunting soundscapes to create an altogether heavenly mess.This limited edition single is only available from the band's website,www.cane141.com. Log on for more details-this is one you won't want to miss.
Review #1 - gtm review from soundsxp
Cane 141 play classic, bucolic pop with a slightly experimental feel: there
are shades of Saint Etienne, Go Betweens and Stereolab, all mixed into a
sweet package. It’s all pretty laidback, graceful and moody but never
simply washes over you. Eager Boy Comics is a good example: a graceful and
mellow Bacharach-like pop song with a bossanova beat accompanied by
electronic touches that reinforce its contemporary sound. By contrast, Me
and Michael, is sad and poetic with spacey electronic effects and
phoned-in-from-Pluto vocals, in a Flaming Lips style. In the Sky, The Lucky
Stars is a mesmerising and aching song, worthy of the Go Betweens or Belle
and Sebastian. It starts acoustically, embraces you in a warm swirl of
gorgeous melodies and then it ends, just when you’re on the point of
addiction. The Grand Lunar is melodic, laidback and warm with a
hypnotically catchy chorus. New Day Parade is a sweet pop jewel, with Nick
Drake vocals and, in its pastoral-sounding longings, sounding a little like
The Lilac Time (not least in the Julie Christie references). The wistful,
lonely melodica sound is particularly effective and Mark Eitzel guest-vocals
on the track, which is also being released as a single. There are touches
of Love’s intense, sorrowful pop in The Party and the Velvet Underground in
their quieter moments (Photocredit One).
Cane 141, daydreamers and romantics to a man, make shimmering and affecting
pure pop pearls. Don’t let them pass you by.
Reviewed by Ged
Review #2 - gtm from 'The Fly'
Garden Tiger Moth - the second album from Cane 141, it will be released on February 19th through
Decor Records. If Belle and Sebastian/Air/Any Lo-Fi madness is your bag,
then reserve your copy now.
How effortless life can seem. Everything about Cane 141’s second album is
like a breath of fresh air, from the combination of strolling acoustics and
cheerful electronica on Eager Boy Comics to the Belle & Sebastian-like
Photocredit One; all of it feels as wonderful as a breeze on a hot summer’s
day. The St. Etienne sparkle of The Grand Lunar revels in its own sweetness,
the horns that gatecrash The Party open up a whole new world, and every
single track is astonishingly appealing. This is in no small part down to
the lyrics, which are sometimes reminiscent in style of The Auteurs and
never written just for the sake of it. Lines such as, ‘It’s like you play
the part of Julie Christie and I play the part of Tom Courtenay,’ (a
reference to Dr. Zhivago) reflect an appropriate spirit of melodrama. The
words fit their role perfectly, opening up a hugeness of space, and never
making the fantasies seem too far-fetched. The pretty melody of In The Sky,
The Lucky Stars, explodes in a translucent mystery of Twin Peaks mystery and
you can’t help but fall in love with this album. An album where every ending
makes sense of its beginning.
Reviewed by Johnny K
Review #3 - omh.com
Cane 141 - Garden Tiger Moth (Decor)
Release date: 12 March 2000
TRACK LISTING:
1. Eager boy comics
2. Grand lunar
3. In the sky the lucky stars
4. Real spacemen never walk anywhere
5. Photocredit one
6. New day parade
7. Party
8. Photocredit two
9. Scene form 6am
10. Me and Michael
11. Look out kid
This first release from Decor Records (we assume, as we have no press
release to say otherwise) is from some Galway chappies collectively known as
Cane 141. Comparisons with or Ladytron would be more appropriate for the
most part when discussing instrumentation than tired parallels with Tim
Buckley or Nick Drake - at least for some of the songs on Garden Tiger Moth.
The remainder of the album is acoustic, and just as you've gotten used to it
not being so. A surprise a minute, then.
The opener, Eager Boy Comics, is full of analogue synth and 7th chords over
something that sounds like a synthesised saw with lounge wind instruments
parping, engendering memories of the soundtrack One Flew Over The Cuckoos'
Nest - both the Chief's escape and Nurse Ratched's daily therapy sessions.
And.... you can dance to it!
The second track, Grand Lunar, is even more of a surprise, for here is a
sensuous lead vocal laid over music featuring instantly memorable chords
played on an organ and live drums. Analogue effects dominate to great effect
- and this is really rather fab - even when a trumpet turns up!
In The Sky is a more sedate offering, while Photocredit One and Photocredit
Two would not sound out of place on Damon Albarn's Greatest Hits, all
ancient drum machines, sleepy vocals and carnivalesque keyboards. New Day
Parade starts out sounding like a marriage of the acoustic guitars of
Radiohead's Creep and Brian's melody for Turn Your Lights On and roughly
finishes in the same vein. The Party is Enrico Morricone territory -
fantastic cowboy country landscapes and Spanish bullfights are brought to
mind by the beat and that trumpet again. Scene from 6am is Tram territory,
but is instantly contrasted by Me & Michael's effects, which are more Bis
than anything since... well, Bis. The Look Out Kid is as spectacular a
finish as you'll ever get to an album - and it emphasises that the
production of the record is as talent-laden as the songwriting and
performance.
Overall, the album manages to make analogue keyboards combined with acoustic
guitars sound like they represent emotion. This is something even the best
1990s bands using such equipment usually couldn't manage - they'd instead
sound like they were using keyboards because they were trendy, but would
really rather get back to guitars fast. A verdict, then? Sumptuous vocals,
great arrangements, imaginitive instrumentation and effects, honed to
perfection. More, please. Now.
Reviewed by Michael Hubbard
|
|
|
|
