Thighpaulsandra — Rape Scene
Thighpaulsandra is known most for his collaborations with Julian Cope, Spiritualized and of course the mini revolution he sparked in the music of Coil, most notably bringing them back to the live arena. His earlier releases, The Some Head EP, I Thighpaulsandra, and Double Vulgar were all highly charge melting pots of electronica, Music Concrete, stadium rock and contempory classical stylings. Taking influences from all across the avant-garde these releases were at times a perplexing mass of convoluted and over intellectual music. However with this three track mini album he has managed to distil his influences into a concise and exciting mix helped no doubt by the presence of only two other players for the recording, much of which is improvised.
The first track Joyful Misuse of the Gomco Clamp begins with sparse synth noise and distant keyboard chords. Thus begins a lovely build up of dissonant piano and abstract electronics before a bouncing electronic bass and drumming give the track momentum. Incorporating what sounds like duck calls (ala Zorn) and strange concrete elements, including warped computer speak the piece drifts along a highly trippy route that leads to a searing guitar feedback solo at around ten minutes before ending in a wash of feedback and synthetic noise.
The busy Jew is probably the standout track here which like all three songs builds slowly with sequenced electronics and effects. This time an almost semi-country style guitar line augmented with martial drumming and "squishy" synth noise starts the piece. What makes this track stand out is the fabulous cabaret krautrock freak out that occurs at about five minutes in. Accompanied by Thighpaulsandra’s organ playing and bizarre vocals this track really pushes his solo work up a level for me, and when at one point the rhythm hints at an almost Ska motif, you really begin to appreciate the depth of the mans humour and compositional skills.
The last offering is His Lavish Showroom. It’s a much more sedate and sinister beast than the previous track. Again the slow build up, but this time incorporating Martin Schellards violin playing and use of toy piano. Again the acoustic sounds are surrounded by a vast range of electronic wizardry with Thighpaulsandra credited as playing no less than five different synthesizers or softsynths on this track alone. My only gripe for this track is that the improvisation of the three players just doesn’t seem to click on this piece like it does on the other two. There is a great deal of interesting music going on but it almost seems as if the players are playing in isolation rather than as a unit. This point aside, Rape Scene is without doubt Thighpaulsandras best solo work so far and is hopefully a indicator of things to come.