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Avg: 3.0 (20 ratings)
- Date Released: July 1, 2008
- Genre: Electronic
- Label: Ghostly International / IODA
For those who like their indie knowing, playful and subversive, the Chap is tasty stuff indeed.
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We Say...
"Nothing new under the sun" we’re often told, but the Chap — an arty and sardonic quartet from North London — squeeze undeniable freshness from the sum of their influences. This, their third album, joins the dots between Sonic Youth, Múm, electronica aces Matmos and quintessentially English bands such as Black Box Recorder. It’s an odd mix that together with the subject matter of their knowing, dryly mocking lyrics sets the Chap apart.
The mores of the music business and the biases and pretences of its insiders have been fair game since the group’s second album, Ham. This time out, too, you sense that certain out-of-touch or cooler-than-thou individuals are being parodied. “Fun & Interesting” could be read as an A&R’s man’s patronising dismissal of the kind of left-field, non-formulaic pop that the Chap do so well, while “I Saw Them” — ostensibly an account of seeing some unspecified band at various London venues before that band became famous — seems aware that some who claim to have seen the nascent Nirvana or whoever may be fibbing.
Musically speaking, too, Mega Breakfast surprises and wrong-foots. Ruler-twang noises and a coolly crazed chorus are factored into "Carlos, Walter, Wendy, Stanley"; “Surgery” deals in crisp, light funk, and “Caution Me” serves up atonal, but wonderfully hooky guitar motifs. With the multi-instrumentalist skills of Johannes Von Weizsacker and Panos Ghikas including cello and violin respectively, there is also an understated chamber-pop element at play. Crucially, though, it’s been manipulated and re-configured via deft computer programming. This lot rarely do things by the book.
In summary, Mega Breakfast is a bona fide envelope pusher that juxtaposes pure pop savvy with more enigmatic and at times slightly disorientating fair. For those who like their indie knowing, playful and subversive, it’s tasty stuff indeed. -
They Say...
On "Proper Rock," one of Mega Breakfast's many deeply cheeky moments, the Chap sing about "proper songs about girls and clubbing," but that's the closest they come to such straightforward subject matter. Surgery, cloning, and world music are much more interesting song topics in the Chap's world, and more fitting for their "pop improv disco rock with strings" anyway. Their sound has gotten sleeker, slicker, and brighter with each album, and Mega Breakfast is some of their most electronic -- and danceable -- music. "They Have a Name" opens the album with a literal call to the dancefloor and one of the band's most insistently kinetic beats. "Caution Me" is even better, turning surreal non sequiturs like "come into my bathroom showroom" and "shred my document" into some of the strangest come-ons since Lick My Decals Off, Baby, as a four-on-the-floor beat gradually overtakes the song, propelling it to new levels of funky weirdness. The Chap's popcraft is also sharper and stranger than ever on Mega Breakfast; songs start out small, then build into precariously balanced, Rube Goldberg-esque contraptions that topple over in artfully unpredictable ways. "Carlos Walter Wendy Stanley"'s interlocking narratives are set off by dueling vocals, quick-shifting tempos, and a musical motif that pops up later on "Wuss Wuss." With all of this mischief and experimentation going on, it's not surprising that a few tracks on Mega Breakfast grate, at least initially: tracks such as "Take It in the Face" and "The Health of Nations" don't quite fire on all cylinders the way that the string-driven sci-fi narcissism of "Fun and Interesting" and "Ethnic Instrument"'s pseudo-exotic but genuinely catchy babble do. The Chap's songs often seem to have giant quotation marks around them, but their hyper-cleverness works far more often than it doesn't, especially when it's supported by all of the mercurial turns that make Mega Breakfast some of the band's most accomplished and widest-ranging music.
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12 Total Tracks, 43:24 Total Length
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Credits
- Graham Harvey - Illustrations // John Peel - Author // Alex Ward - Clarinet // Johannes Von Weizsäcker - Guitar // Johannes Von Weizsäcker - Cello // Johannes Von Weizsäcker - Vocals // Johannes Von Weizsäcker - Computers // Johannes Von Weizsäcker - Group Member // Claire Hope - Keyboards // Claire Hope - Vocals // Claire Hope - Group Member // Keith Duncan - Drums // Keith Duncan - Vocals // Keith Duncan - Group Member // Panos Ghikas - Bass // Panos Ghikas - Guitar // Panos Ghikas - Violin // Panos Ghikas - Vocals // Panos Ghikas - Computers // Panos Ghikas - Group Member // Constantin Gabrysch - Engineer
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Composers
Johannes Von Weizsäcker // Claire Hope // Keith Duncan // Panos Ghikas
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