New Piano Magic

features Brendan Perry and Peter Ulrich, too... (cut & pasted from elsewhere)

Piano Magic - Ovations
Label: Make Mine Music/Darla Records
Released: Oct 12, 2009

Info:

10th official album by London-based Anglo-French coldwave group, Piano Magic. 
Features special guests from Dead Can Dance: Peter Ulrich and Brendan Perry. Perry sings on 'The Nightmare Goes On' and 'You Never Loved This City', whilst Ulrich adds percussion and hammered dulcimer to 'March Of The Atheists', 'A Fond Farewell' and 'La Cobard'a de los Toreros'.

Typically for a Piano Magic record it's a restless beast; a record that swings wildly between 
Marrakesh, Eastern Europe, Sevilla and early 80s Manchester without breaking a sweat. Piano Magic have always worn their influences on their sleeves. The Chameleons, Joy Division and The Cure rub shoulders with Turkish darabuka, hammered dulcimer, viola, cello, flamenco claps. Elsewhere there are cold analogue synths, chiming guitars, mournful piano and industrial percussion.

Whether this new album is quickly consigned to a dusty drawer in the museum of musical curios like so many other Piano Magic records is yet to be seen but there's more depth, soul, variety, dynamic, romance, emotion here than many groups manage in their entire careers. [Darla Records]

Track list:
01. The Nightmare Goes On
02. March Of The Aetheists
03. On Edge
04. A Fond Farewel
05. The Blue Hour
06. Recovery Postition
07. La Cobard'a De Los Toreros
08. You Never Loved This City
09. The Faint Horizon
10. Exit
	 

Review:

The opening prowl of 'The Nightmare Goes On' is a key indicator of the overall trajectory of Ovations.  With commanding guest lead vocals from Dead Can Dance's Brendan Perry, intoning Johnson's funereal prose over washes of synths, exotic strings and almost African rhythms, the long-player feels like a much more successful attempt to capture the true '80s 4AD spirit that the ensemble strained a little hard to reach on 2002's collaborator-heavy Writers Without Homes.  With Johnson back to the singing fore, the thicker rhythmic mélange hits with even greater force on the ensuing Moroccan-vibed 'March Of The Atheists' and the skittering electro-beats-driven 'On Edge'. The more minimalist, Details Not Recorded-like, 'A Fond Farewell' brings a serene momentary breathing space before 'The Blue Hour' and 'Recovery Position' crash in with towering waves of Robin Guthrie guitars put through Modern English amplifiers.

Before proceedings slide too close to unadulterated '80s noire retrophilia, the wordless 
'La Cobard'a De Los Toreros' chimes in with an Eastern European baroque eloquence that might not sound out of place on Beirut's Gulag Orkestar. Following this refreshing interlude, a second Perry-sung track, the elegantly-orchestrated 'You Never Loved This City', glides in with unapologetically lovelorn Tindersticks-style grace and gravitas.  
The somewhat automatic New Order-referencing of 'The Faint Horizon' consequently feels a little anaemic in its wake.  However, the closing 'Exit' more than makes up for it, with squelchy Kraftwerk electronics and a Vini Reilly guitar figure enveloping an elegiac duet between Johnson and regular golden-toned Piano Magic chanteuse, Ang'le David-Guillou.

Like its predecessor, the impressive Ovations provides no linear entry-point into the labyrinthine world of Piano Magic. Yet, it undoubtedly finds Glen Johnson and co. regaining a stronger sense of collective purpose; reinforcing the belief that the group still has plenty of reasons and room to exist alongside its members extra-curricular roaming, for a little while longer at least.  
Longtime fans will love it unreservedly.[Adrian P., adequacy.net]



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