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HEAD LIKE A KITE Random Portraits Of The Home Movie Pattern 25 Records (2006)
Super 8 film cameras caught the lives of mid America on film in the 1970's. A generation later guitarist Dave Einmo has used those old home movies as a soundtrack and inspiration for this diverse concept album.
Covering a huge range of styles from trip hop to krautrock the album is held together with super 8 sound effects and narrative. It shouldn't really work, but it blends seamlessly from psychedelia to rock to hip hop with intuitive use of mellotron, koto, cello, guitar and an arsenal of old analog effects. And to help the party along, Dave is accompanied by drummers Darious Minwalla, Barry Shaw and David Weeks, vocalists Asya, Graig Markel and Barnara Trenalage and a host of other players from the Seattle music scene.
Punctuated by random blips, beeps and narrative the album comprises 12 tracks (excluding the intro, outro and intermission) which reflect 3 minute snatches of random super 8 movies. As Dave notes ' In the 70's people had to be selective in what they shot on film because each reel was only three minutes. I wanted to capture that feel with musical snapshots of life'.
And d'you know what? Surprisingly, although the album surfs the gamut of electro, pop, rock, hip-hop, Kraut rock, and trance it all seems to hang together seamlessly in a constantly evolving sonic landscape and is actually rather good.
****
Review by Pete Whalley
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