Cate Le Bon “CYRK” – #RECORDclub 1

The Future Heart #RECORDclub – a discussion on twitter about new albums, and a way to discover the free streams most worthy your time – was launched in January 2012 with Cate Le Bon’s CYRK.  Like all #RECORDclub selections, a stream of it was linked on twitter to listen to the full album, for free.  

https://twitter.com/#!/CateLeBon/status/162339988397236224

Take a listen to CYRK  at Paste (or here) and then join in a discussion with other fans by tweeting your reactions of the album or its songs with the hashtag #RECORDclub.  The intention is to create dialogue like those in local “book clubs” – but for music not books, and using social media instead of coffee klatsches.  Check this blog and FutureHeartDay to read what other are tweeting. 

https://twitter.com/chadthenomad/statuses/161983644787933184

Here’s CYRK‘s tracklist followed by tweets for each song: 
1. Falcon Eyed
2. Puts Me To Work
3. Cyrk
4. Julia
5. Greta
6. Fold The Cloth
7. The Man I Wanted
8. Through The Mill
9/10. Ploughing Out parts (1 and 2)

https://twitter.com/#!/FutureHeartDay/status/161975328884006913

https://twitter.com/#!/FutureHeartDay/status/161983072965902337

https://twitter.com/#!/FutureHeartDay/status/162331687693463553

Now is not a good time to leave me on my own
I neither will then be a good time
I’ve always loved the movement of the trees
Find me a place where I can watch the breeze

I’m counting the minutes 1, 2, 3 and 4… 

…Find me a place where little birds fly by

https://twitter.com/#!/FutureHeartDay/status/162340477813788672

https://twitter.com/#!/FutureHeartDay/status/162352630952243202

Have something to say about CYRK, any of the songs, or any other new album?  Tweet with hashtag #RECORDclub.

Want more?  Download Cate’s “Puts Me To Work” for free (and legal), or buy the full album from iTunes, Amazon, Insound, The Control Group or eMusic.  CYRK is available on limited-edition vinyl, 300 hand-numbered copies available from The Control Group and Insound.

Watch Cate’s “Fold The Cloth” video on vimeo, or at promonews.tv with notes from its director, Ryan Owen.  And once again, you can download Beyond Beyond is Beyond for free.

https://twitter.com/#!/filmryan/status/161776858248126464

1. Her connections to Super Furry Animal Gruff Rhys
2. Her recent tour opening for St Vincent (Annie Clark being so taken, she invited Cate to sing during St Vincent’s sets)
3. …and, most of all, the similarly of her singing to Nico’s

Nico broke the molds of being a female singer in the 1960s.  Not a smiling songbird or sexy chanteuse, Nico’s somewhat cold, but strangely seductive singing remains the definitive dark femme fatale voice – perfect for Lou Reed’s black angel death songs.  Cate has a similar quality.

In an interview with Young Hollywood last spring Cate admitted her intentions for her “Hollow Trees House Hounds” music video: “I was quite keen to go down a route that was kind of opposite to the female singer-songwriters…and try to steer away from cutesy folk images.”  The same is true of CYRK.

At the start of 2012, there’s been a lot of new albums by “the female singer-songwriters.”  For some perspective, compare how far off course Cate is from these:

• Kathleen Edwards – Voyageur (click link to stream)
• First Aid Kit – The Lions Roar (or here)
• Sharon Van Etten – Tramp 
• Jessie Baylin – Little Spark
• Laura Gibson – La Grande
• Cheyenne Marie Mize – We Don’t Need
• Kami Thompson – Love Liesby
• Ani DiFranco – Which Side Are You On?

The more important point isn’t that Cate’s non-American accent, flat phrasing (especially in her lower register), death lyrics, and idiosyncratic chilly-but-enchanting delivery reminds of Nico, but that she dares to stray from familiar paths (and in doing so has set herself up to be compared to the few before her that have done similar).

The musical touchstones dig much deeper than the Super Furries and the Velvets.  Cyrk – which means “circus” in Polish – is like the Big Top of cool noise, a record collector’s wet dream of sounds ala Syd Barrett, Olivia Tremor Control, Os Mutantes, Stereolab, Faust, Pavement, Can, Broadcast, et al.  To reduce CYRK to the work of others in your vinyl collection though is to hear it only on the most superficial level. 

Ultimately Cate defines CYRK not through her singing, but through her writing and arranging.   So if CYRK must be matched with a reference point, it shouldn’t be Nico, but quirky idols like Stephen Malkmus or (especially) Syd Barrett (who she has covered on record).  But even these comparisons only go so far. 

CYRK shines not for passing resemblances in her voice (to Nico) or even writing (to Syd, or whoever…), but for every song having its own personality – without being smothered by the pretentiousness of “persona” so rampant in contemporary culture.  She doesn’t put out, she lures in listeners with her music’s unique charms.  And it most definitely is her charms…

Every track develops by its own logic, and there lies the brilliance of Cate and her band.  Some of the rhythms are played loose, others stiffly jib and jab at your ears.  There’s hooks galore, but they rarely end where they seemed to be bound.  And though the song forms often stray into unforeseen territories, it’s remarkably focused for such a playful, wide-eyed, unruly album.

https://twitter.com/#!/KliphScurlock/status/163364248708329473

https://twitter.com/#!/KliphScurlock/status/163365638440624128

https://twitter.com/#!/KliphScurlock/status/163375533005086720

Cate supposedly writes her songs in the dark.  That’s not surprising, still CYRK glows with quirkily crafted arrangements, paced with a variety of moods, tempos and sonic colors.  The entire album passes before the listener can attempt to process sense of it.  Listening to it is as laid-back as as watching the breeze – to paraphrase the title-track – but it’s existential exuberance entices close, repeated listens.  Most of all, Cate’s catchy and off-kilter melodicism makes this album hard to forget.  It’s infectious and addictive.  The songs stick in your head, even if your brain can’t quite comprehend them…
 … craving obsession…

https://twitter.com/#!/CateLeBon/status/161941170723880960

https://twitter.com/#!/MTVMusicMeter/status/162250378170208256

https://twitter.com/#!/CateLeBon/status/164492509198823424