My Friend The Chocolate Cake - Brood

CD: MUSH32247.2
RELEASE DATE: 1994
LABEL: Mushroom

With Not Drowning Waving having retired from the musical rat race. it's quite logical that what started out as a NDW side-project, the uniquely-named My Friend The Chocolate Cake, should get a little more attention from its founders,Helen Mountfort and David Bridie. Who would have thought, though, that this low, key side project would produce a record of such astonishing quality and diversity as Brood? Freed from the pop-song format that had become NDW's mainstay, Bridie and Mountfort have fashioned an album that could be a film soundtrack one minute, and a warm, gentle pop album the next. The contrast is highlighted right at the outset, with opening track Dance - a haunting and spacious instrumental - leading into the gorgeous I've Got A Plan, a more conventional song with the full band. Title track Brood is another instrumental in the mode of the opening track a piece of such perfect beauty it's breathtaking. Yandoit also an instrumental, builds to a climax reminiscent of Peter Gabriels earlier work. From here proceedings move from the quirky (The Pramsitters) to the epic (Aberystwyth) to the reflective (album closer Low), all the time never losing focus or the attention of the listener. Whether by accident or design, Bridie and Mountfort along with their one time casual side project have created one of their best albums, full of inventiveness, resonance and intelligence. At times recalling the early days of Not Drowning, Waving, but more often looking forward. Brood is a masterful album that we're lucky to have around.

Beoordeel