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Album Review
by SaschaS
6-10-2003
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| John Cale: on a hobosapiens' trippola |
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John Cale: 'Hobosapiens'
(EMI)
John Cale – sounds like from inside a painting
The UK government recently announced that it would pay senior citizens to remain working until the age of 70; although it is a diligent measure, it’d require general public’s re-conditioning on age-issue. Ageism is nowhere more evident but in ‘heroes’-market: each consuming generation ditches the previous pop stars, naturally for idols of their own making, ever since the Year Zero of teenage-hood…
This lot tends to lose on some mature artists who produce albums that are more than worth investigating, from Bowie to Blondie’s album to, in particular, John Cale’s ‘Hobosapiens’. Founder member of The Velvet Underground, solo artist of repute and producer of many, has never stopped searching for that elusive ‘next-note’ of delight. Mr Cale, 61, of Wales, has been an avant-garde’s rock ambassador for about 35 years.
The pun-titled ‘Hobosapiens’ points to the global theme of the album as well as Cale’s ever-expending dictionary of idiosyncrasy. Having hooked up with Nick Franglen of Jelly Fish, the man with a face looking like chiseled-in-marble and a stern voice to match (a cross between Scott Walker and Tom Waits) leads on an excursion that is like being inside a painting: a view of some astonishing vistas opening from the ridge while the sun shifts its position toward disappearing.
It’s a norm to claim that this, or that, disc is an amazing achievement but ‘Hobosapiens’ stakes the rightful claim. Dark, majestic, hypnotic, a tad unsettling, it travels distances from simple electronica to solemnly intoned ‘Magritte’ with orchestration that puts it way above the mainstream’s event horizon. Cale’s world has always been full of the unexpected, daring and surprising where folkness rubs shoulders with rousing, bouncy rhythms, chord changes (to die for) are supplanted with detailed sonic decorations.
‘Things’, picked for a single is, in a PR-quote, “An irresistibly joyous, hook-laden romp, garlanded with a typically mordant lyric, it’s as instantly melodic as anything in the avant-rock grandee’s considerable solo oeuvre – and that’s going some.” The song obliquely references director Gary Fleder’s 1996 gangster caper ‘Things To Do In Denver When You’re Dead’; Picasso gets a nod in the opening ‘Zen’, there is a track about ‘Archimedes’ (a cine-pop-dub). Yep, lyrics are of the Cale’s standard.
‘Caravan’ is minimal-but-cosmic, ‘Reading My Mind’ and ‘Bicycle’ are quite jolly ditties while ‘Letter From Abroad’ is broody, claustrophobic and serene; ‘Things X’ is more abstract, electronically mashed take of the song… Proof positive that Cale’s metabolism, intellect, talent and skill for audio adventure are alive, well and wiping the floor with any young pretenders.
If he were a new artist, media would hail him as the future… John Cale’s been for a long time and certainly still is.
Tour dates:
01 November – Nighttown, Rotterdam
02 November – Kulturfabrik, Luxembourg
04 November – Paradiso, Amsterdam
05 November – Oosterpoort, Groningen
07 November – Atlantis, Alkmaar
08 November – Magdalenazaal, Bruge
10 November – Burghof, Lorrach
11 November – Central Station, Darmstadt
12 November – Karlstorbahnhof, Heidelber
13 November – Manufaktur, Schorndorf
15 November – Fri-Son, Fribourg
17 November – Alkatraz, Milano
18 November – Teatro Tenda Ponte Mosca, Torino
19 November – Muffathalle, Munchen
20 November – Szene Wien, Vienna November
22 November – Palace Acropolis, Prague
23 November – Fabrik, Hambourg
25 November – Kantine, Köln
26 November – Schlachtof, Bremen
27 November – Kulturfabrik, Krefeld
29 November – Ringlokschuppen, Bielefeld
30 November – Huxley's Neue Welt, Berlin
02 December – Vega, Copenhagen
03 December – Train, Aarhus
04 December – Rytmeposten, Odense
06 December – Stakhallen, Lund
09 December – Ancienne Belgique, Brussels
10 December – Elysee Montmartre, Paris
12 December – Liquid Rooms, Edinburgh
14 December – Arts Centre, Warwick
15 December – Shepherds Bush Empire, London
16 December – Dome, Brighton
SaschaS
3-9-2002
John Cale’s album ‘Hobosapiens’ is released 06 October 2003 by EMI
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