90s Cup Final Round Match 4 *Jumper K 9- Machuki 9*

[never/ever]

A

Kramer - Nine Minus Seven Is Two





B

Palace Music/Will Oldham - New Partner

[The Modernist]

A seems an attempt to ape Bowie or Steve Harley at their most grandiloquent (think or 'All the Madmen' or 'Sebastian'), but it's such a mess of a track and that vocal is so unattractive that it's pretty much DOA for me. I think I'd rather have heard Kramer from Seinfield.

B is one of those lo-fi tracks where lo-fi becomes a synonym for half-assed, lazy and poorly executed. No excuse for laying down such a poor vocal.

A because there is something potentially interesting happening.

[copehead]

A sounds a bit Suede like to me which chimes with G's thoughts.

I like Will Oldham, but this isn't one I'd have chosen.

B, but more for who it is than what it is

B

[Diamond Dog]

The Bowie pastiche isn't that inspiring but it does have the kernel of something decent there.

The second track just sounds like something tossed off in between recording sessions. And not worked on or improved.

A but a pretty un-enthusiastic vote.

[Polishgirl]

Ooof. I suppose B is mindlessly ok; just.

B

[C]

A




.

[Darkness_Fish]

Yeah, A sounds like Brett Anderson doing a Bowie Christmas song. Which would be probably a massive improvement on this. I guess it's trying to do something distinctive at least. I guess it could even be a bad song on a late 90s Legendary Pink Dots album, you just thing they'd have better lyrics and an oboe or something more interesting than that guitar.

I don't really know anything of Will Oldham beyond I See a Darkness, but this is quite pleasant. I like the casual, bimbling nature, the unpolished attitude and intimate tone of it all. It's making me think that I should delve further into his back catalogue, it's an absolute joy of almost-naivete, it feels almost improvised it's that casual. Lovely.

B

[toomanyhatz]

Both of these are interesting, if too throwbacky to have much to do with the 90s.

A is too long and unwieldy to be a true tribute to what I think it's after - if it's as G says, it just reminds me that that stuff was a lot more hook-laden. But there's enough interesting happening there to make me think maybe it's just that particular track, and they're actually pretty good. I may investigate later.

B meanders even more, but in a ragged, Incredible String Band kind of way that, at least in this context, is kind of charming.

[Loki]

[Penk!]

Kramer produced some good records. I don't recall him playing, singing or writing or any of them, though. This isn't terrible, it's just not much good either.
B sounded like all the Will Oldham stuff I've heard: it kept threatening to be pretty and pleasant, but was too determinedly "lo-fi" to really manage it. I can enjoy things like this sometimes but they need to make me thing they actually care; this just sounded cynical and lazy.

A I suppose.

[trans-chigley express]

I totally get the Bowie comparisons in A which is completely fine if the song was strong enough to back it up but it wasn't
B's "low-fi" charm was nice enough.

B

[Jumper K]

One mans lofi charm is another’s festering bowl of cold sick.
A.

[Rayge]

as I may have mentioned before, I love Mark Kramer as a producer, sideman and facilitator, but not so much as a solo artist. The Secret of Comedy is a hellacious downer of an album, on a level with Berlin for well-crafted misery, and I haven't listened to it since just after it came out; but I don't have to go back on that, because I never heard a Will Oldham track I liked, so I'm letting K walk over

A

[WG Kaspar]

B

[never/ever]

I actually expected some Bongwater in this Cup but no one obliged.... and even though Kramer is doing his darnedest to oblige the sense of crazindie by himself, it's too much a pastiche...
Palace Music is the kind of lo-fi indie I like even though this shark has no teeth....it just shades A for me tonight.

B

[Buddha B-Rex]

B

[algroth]

A may be channelling Bowie but the end result is reminiscent to GN'R's ballads in all the worst ways. B was very nice.

[Ranking Ted]

A

[fange]

Neither has really lit my fire, but A's tune and more polish get it the win.

A

[never/ever]

Jumper K 9

Count Machuki 9