With the help of Nurse With Wound mainman Steven Stapleton on “tapes, piano, and inspiration,” Ka-Spel collaborated with multi-instrumentalist Patrick Wright on Chyekk China Doll, a worthy entry in Ka-Spel’s lengthy, involved series of solo works. As with most of his solo work, the artist moves sideways from the collapsing, queasy anarchy of the Legendary Pink Dots for a quieter but no less freaky combination. Wright plays a core role throughout, cowriting nearly all the songs and adding his haunting, heavily echoed violin work to many songs, further rendering the playfully cartoon music-in-hell compositions even more curious. The aura of fragile chamber music and oddly elegant ballroom dancing on the brief “Chyekk 1” and “Chyekk 2” and the downright captivating start to “The Glory, the Glory” are some of his standout moments. “Lisa’s Christening,” meanwhile, really does sound like a religious ceremony of some sort, though not exactly one which might be called a traditional Christian rite. Stapleton’s ear for jarring, sudden cuts and random samples further spikes the brew at points — check the brief “Klazh, Tristurr” or the echoing rumble of “The Power, the Power” for a headspinning listen — all making a just disorienting enough combination for Ka-Spel to play in. Sometimes he submerges his vocals in the mix, but, at points, as on the very appropriately titled “The Infinity Waltz,” it goes front and center, his gently declamatory style suiting the results. Ka-Spel’s wiggy sense of humor helps in some of the arrangements as well — who else would whip up a jazzy, ’20s-style strut like “Beautiful Naked” while still making it sound like an invocation to the beyond? Later versions included two tracks recorded in 1994 by Ka-Spel without Stapleton or Wright; the winner of the two is “Colour Me Vexed, Desiree,” an unnerving, lengthy swirl of keyboards, feedback, and heavily treated vocal snippets.

Source: http://www.allmusic.com/album/chyekk-china-doll-mw0000884939

Il rumorismo più cupo – insieme a elementi tipici della prima ondata psichedelica – sono i tratti più distintivi del nuovo album dei Legendary Pink Dots, la ‘cult band’ che si muove intorno alla vena creativa di Edward Ka-Spel (the Pink Man) e Phil Knight (the Silver Man) ed è attiva nel Regno Unito fin dall’inizio degli anni Ottanta.
Lontani anni luce da qualsiasi appartenenza ad un genere musicale e conseguente catalogazione, i Leggendari Puntini Rosa portano ad un livello più estremo e quasi farneticante le intuizioni che furono del primo Syd Barrett dei Pink Floyd. Anche in questa occasione non mancano composizioni decisamente eccentriche improntante ad una sorta di dark-punk elettronico, ad un cabaret nero ovattato ed ammaliante, niente affatto di facile ascolto, ma al quale è difficile sottrarsi.
Questo “10 To The Power Of 9” è in realtà un ‘concept album’ che prevede anche un seguito, un volume 2, ed è centrato intorno ad una complicato storia di cospirazioni e complotti che ha origine su una vetta irraggiungibile in cima al monte Himalaya, dove vivono uno accanto all’altro i dieci uomini più importanti del mondo, e trova poi applicazione sul retro di un piccolo ufficio di Londra, dove le loro decisioni trovano una corretta applicazione e scatenano guerre di religione e conflitti mondiali.
Sono loro, tutti uomini, tutti Presidenti di qualcosa, a decidere chi vince e chi perde, chi muore e chi invece resta in vita. Siamo nell’ambito della psichedelìa più pura, più surreale, ma è un posto particolarmente adatto alle vertiginose e debordanti soluzioni armoniche di Phil Knight, ai sintetizzatori, su cui si inserisce di tanto in tanto un canto vellutato ed affascinante.
Tutte da ascoltare le esecuzioni di The Virgin Queen, di Your Humble Servant e di Open Season, impreziosite dalle interpretazioni di Edward Ka-Spel, davvero simile nell’impostazione vocale al compianto Syd Barrett. Quanto mai interessante poi lo ‘spoken word’ di Olympus 2020, mentre è decisamente provocatoria ed intelligente la trovata di inserire l’invocazione “no rain/ no rain” (resa famosa dal festival di Woodstock, nel1969) all’interno di Malice – Freak Flag, una sorta di ideale passaggio delle consegne dall’era hippy all’elettronica dei nostri tempi.
Un album pieno zeppo di riferimenti e di contenuti musicali ed esistenziali, politici e filosofici, un manifesto anarcoide che merita di essere centellinato in ognuna delle sue sfumature. Da ascoltare.

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The darkest noise – together with typical elements of the first psychedelic wave – are the most distinctive features of the new album by Legendary Pink Dots , the ‘cult band’ that moves around the creative vein of Edward Ka-Spel (the Pink Man) and Phil Knight (the Silver Man) and has been active in the UK since the early 1980s.

Light years away from any belonging to a musical genre and consequent cataloging, the Legendary Pink Points bring to a more extreme and almost raving level the intuitions that were of the first Syd Barrett of Pink Floyd. Also on this occasion there is no shortage of decidedly eccentric compositions marked by a sort of electronic dark-punk, a muffled and bewitching black cabaret, not at all easy to listen to, but which is difficult to escape from.

This “10 To The Power Of 9”is actually a ‘concept album’ which also includes a sequel, volume 2, and is centered around a complicated story of conspiracies and plots that originates on an unreachable peak atop the Himalayan mountain, where they live next to each other the ten most important men in the world, and then finds its application in the back of a small London office, where their decisions are properly implemented and ignite religious wars and global conflicts.

It is they, all men, all Presidents of something, who decide who wins and who loses, who dies and who remains alive. We are in the realm of the purest, most surreal psychedelia, but it is a particularly suitable place for the dizzying and overflowing harmonic solutions of Phil Knight, for the synthesizers, on which a velvety and fascinating song is inserted from time to time.

The performances of The Virgin Queen , Your Humble Servant and Open Season are all worth listening to , embellished by the interpretations of Edward Ka-Spel , very similar in vocal setting to the late Syd Barrett. How interesting is the ‘spoken word’ of Olympus 2020, while the idea of ​​inserting the invocation “no rain/ no rain” (made famous by the Woodstock festival in 1969) within Malice – Freak Flag is decidedly provocative and intelligent , a sort of ideal handover from the era hippy to the electronics of our times.
An album full of references and musical and existential, political and philosophical contents, an anarchist manifesto that deserves to be sipped in each of its nuances. To listen.

source: http://bit.ly/1yeh2O0
by Giancarlo De Chirico

If Syd Barrett were an 80s Goth he would be Edward Ka-Spel of the Legendary Pink Dots. At first the album did not strike me as anything great, but after several spins the album both nods toward the 25 year old Legendary Pink Dots classic LP The Maria Dimension (which is getting a 5LP box treatment from the Soleilmoon label very soon) and 80s Edward Ka-Spel albums like his China Doll series of LPs from the 80s. The vocals are cryptic and dark and gothic, a strange piano, odd finger drums and the intro to the first song called Limburgia has a Indian raga like beat. All the 8 tracks flow like a single sequence of interworked songs, though they are all different and separate tracks. Here we do not have the Noise sculpture and abstract Industrial splatter like on Dream Loops or Ghost Logik from a few years ago, nor the electronic madness of Edward’s Dream Logik trilogy. The third track, The Border Beyond, has ominous police sirens in the distance closing in and leaving again, fading in and out again like a spectre on the “force”. Edward sings very low key. It takes either great concentration to follow his lyrics, or you can do like me, imagine the darkwave ramblings of a 80s Goth Syd Barrett, though as a lyricist Edward and Syd do not share any similarity, just the voice and the beatnik whimsy style. I ordered the double disc Deluxe set and got a second CD with two tracks, one song is etched as vinyl on the CDR and plays perfectly on my turntable while the other song is there next to it as a digital track, and they both share the same side of the disc. Those two tracks are very analogue and Victorian style forms of musics, maybe after a little Opium and Absinthe…

Overall this is a great grower of an album. It will take me a year to fully absorb all its layered and cryptic meaning, but the melody and song and moods are there. Get this CD if you like 80s The Legendary Pink Dots, and the Chyekk / AaAazhyd / Eyes! / Lyvv China Doll Ka-Spel LPs. They have been remastered by BLRR and sound very nice. Let Edward paint your soul Victorian and prepare yourself for a dose of Barretesque Steampunk Darkwave.

source: http://bit.ly/14h2alL