Icehouse "Primitive Man" (1982)

Primitive Man
release date: Sep. 20, 1982
format: cd (2002 remaster)
[album rate: 4 / 5] [3,88]
producer: Iva Davies and Keith Forsey
label: Warner / Diva Records - nationality: Australia

Track highlights: 1. "Great Southern Land" - 2. "Uniform" - 3. "Hey, Little Girl" - 4. "Street Cafe" - 5. "Glam (instrumental)" - 7. "One by One" - 9. "Mysterious Thing" - 10. "Goodnight, Mr. Matthews"

2nd studio album by Australian synthpop and new wave band Icehouse following two years after the bands debut Icehouse (1980) - released under the name of Flowers. This album is quite extraordinary as it's basically a solo-project since lead vocalist, multi-instrumentalist and only songwriter of the band, Iva Davies, recorded all songs of the album all by himself and some help from co-producer Keith Forsey. The album is still released as a band effort, although, credits on the album leave no information about this. Apparently, Davies wrote all compositions, supplied vocals, guitars, keyboards, bass and drum programming, and Forsey added percussion to the recordings. The other band members then gathered up with Davies to promote the album on a following live tour. For this, the band presented a new line-up with Iva Davies on vocals, guitar & keyboard, Michael Hoste on keyboards, John Lloyd on drums, and three new members: Bob Kretschmar on guitar, Guy Pratt on bass, and Andy Qunta on keyboards & backing vocals.

Primitive Man was met by critical acclaim and peaked at #3 on the national charts list, topped the list in New Zealand, peaked at #5 in Germany and was a small hit in most Scandinavian countries. The single "Hey, Little Girl" remains the band's best-selling single. It was, however, surpassed by two positions in Australia by the release of the first single "Great Southern Land" peaking at #5, but it didn't make noteworthy entries except for in New Zealand.

The album was the first I came across by this great Australian band. As I recall, it was quite popular in the Fall of '82 / Spring of '83. Stylistically, it blends art pop, new wave, and sophisti-pop, which really wasn't a familiar style back then - but this album really was one of the first true 'sophisti-pop' albums leaning on Roxy Music, David Bowie, Japan, and probably influencing upcoming artists like Simple Minds, David Sylvian and The Church. At the time of the release I found it too mainstream sounding, although, in retrospect, it really is a strong and most vital album.

Highly recommended.

[ allmusic.com 4 / 5, Rolling Stone 3 / 5 stars ] 

Rum 37 "Guldstol mod yderste kaj" (2017)

Guldstol mod yderste kaj

release date: Jan. 27, 2017

format: vinyl (TARGET1703LP) / digital (10 x File, FLAC)

[album rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,62]

producer: Rum 37?

label: Target - nationality: Denmark

Track highlights: 1. "Caligula" - 3. "L.L.R." - 4. "Der går et smil gennem skovene i år" - 5. "Mestervaerk" - 6. "Kalifornien" - 8. "Brænder dæk" - 10. "Svanerne sang"

2nd full-length album by Rum 37 follows 4½ years after Mellem rum (Oct. 2012). Like the band's self-titled ep debut Rum 37 from 2011, no producer credits are listed on the album, only recording, mixing, and mastering personnel, and the album is recorded by Klaus Sandberg and Rum 37. The main reason to the long interval from their most recent release to this must be attributed the fact that during the recording sessions in 2014 - with intentions to release the album in late 2014 / early 2015 - drummer Mikkel Lumbye all of a sudden passed away, November 2014, 37 years old, leaving the band reduced to a trio of vocalist Kristian Helmuth, guitarist Camillo (Gino) Askjær, and bassist Søren Adolph. The release was naturally much delayed and has only been realised with the aid from friends and the support from former associates [source: targetgroup.dk].

All songs are credited Rum 37. The album contains ten tracks - tracks #2 and #9 are short instrumentals - with a total time running just below 37 minutes. The end track "Svanerne sang" is the longest composition with a playing time of 7 minutes.

Guldstol mod yderste kaj [translates to strangely sounding 'Sedan Chair on the Last Pier'] (the title is a line from "Caligula") is with lyrics entirely in Danish and when comparing with the 2011 and 2012 albums, it's evident that the band here has transformed to something of more substance. The music is still in the light-end of alt. rock and indie pop with a strong influence from other Danish acts, such as Love Shop, Minds of 99, and Mellemblond, and with a strong musical influence from Swedish band Kent, however, whether the band takes notes from this or that, they here appear in their most original shape so far, which ultimately makes Guldstol mod yderste kaj a more than well-made album. The album was met by positive reviews and following the album release, the band was expanded to a quartet as drummer Rasmus Holmboe was included as official band member. Rum 37 played a few concerts in 2017 and now appears to be on a hiatus. There are no further info to be found regarding touring dates or other news, and the band's Facebook-profile hasn't been updated since 2017, so Guldstol mod yderste kaj remains the most recent release from the band and it could very likely be the final album by this promising quartet.

Recommended.

[ Gaffa.dk 4 / 6, GFRock.dk 5 / 6 stars ]