BARRY ADAMSON: AS ABOVE SO BELOW (REVIEW)
March 10th 2007 07:00
BARRY ADAMSON
AS ABOVE SO BELOW
(1998; MUTE/LIBERATION)
RATING:
TRACK LISTING: 1) Can’t Get Loose / 2) What It Means / 3) Deja Voodoo / 4) Come Hell Or High Water / 5) Jazz Devil / 6) Still I Rise / 7) Girl / 8) The Monkey Speaks His Mind / 9) Goddess Of Love / 10) Jesus Wept
Barry Adamson composes like the musical director to a pulp film, providing soundtracks to the noir movie inside his head. On 1998’s As Above So Below, Adamson pits himself as the Faustian anti-hero, who’s life of excess leads him into the bowels of ‘Hotel Hades’ and out again, musing on matters of life and death as a balm for his own experiences with hip-reconstruction surgery.
For the first time, Adamson talks, croons, and snarls his way through these ten tracks, and while he’s no great singer, his attempts lend a personal air to this material. But he hasn’t gone all pussy singer-songwriter on us—he’s as hard-bitten and slick as ever, with a deft pun and smooth line for every occasion. The opener inverts Pomus and Shuman’s “Cant Get Used To Losing You” to paint him as a cruel-hearted Judas, betraying a loved one over vibes, distorted guitar wash, and the haunting strains of a Hammond organ. As Adamson continues along the road to hell, the biblical allusions mount in the apocalyptic swing of “What It Means;” the simmering strings of “Come Hell Or High Water;” and the centerpiece, “Jazz Devil,” where Adamson proclaims ‘you can call me agent 00666’ during the John Barry-esque bombast of its chorus. It’s here that the narrative takes its turn, Adamson losing his femme fatale while gaining reentry into the land of the living.
From here on in it’s a quest for redemption filled with righteous self-determination and lapses into temptation. Adamson rants stream-of-consciousness lyrics over raging bomb-squad hip-hop on “Still I Rise” as he claws his way out of the post-surgery opiate-haze; gets waylaid by the horny oozing synths and dry-humping bass of “Girl” (a Suicide cover); and addresses his race on the sleazy throb and delirious screams of “The Monkey Speaks His Mind.” It’s telling of Adamson’s sly sense of humour that his eventual ascent into heaven in “Jesus Wept” is preceded by a burbling, backmasked nightmare that sounds twice as scary as his images of hell.
If you were to match this album with a movie, it would be Alan Parker’s Angel Heart, the saxophone mirroring the croon of Courtney Pine's and Barry even murmuring quotes from the film as the narrative touches upon its themes and murky atmosphere. Yeah it’s melodramatic, and maybe just a little bit pretentious, but Adamson plays it like he lives it and his ear for varied soundtrack forms processed through cool jazz, grinding industrial, funky house, beatsy hip-hop, and rousing rock makes As Above So Below both hip and hypnotic.
***
IMAGES
As Above So Below*
(album cover used under fair dealing)
*images on this page were taken from the following Shot By Both Sides page:
Adamson Solo
AS ABOVE SO BELOW
(1998; MUTE/LIBERATION)
RATING:
TRACK LISTING: 1) Can’t Get Loose / 2) What It Means / 3) Deja Voodoo / 4) Come Hell Or High Water / 5) Jazz Devil / 6) Still I Rise / 7) Girl / 8) The Monkey Speaks His Mind / 9) Goddess Of Love / 10) Jesus Wept
As Above So Below (1998)
For the first time, Adamson talks, croons, and snarls his way through these ten tracks, and while he’s no great singer, his attempts lend a personal air to this material. But he hasn’t gone all pussy singer-songwriter on us—he’s as hard-bitten and slick as ever, with a deft pun and smooth line for every occasion. The opener inverts Pomus and Shuman’s “Cant Get Used To Losing You” to paint him as a cruel-hearted Judas, betraying a loved one over vibes, distorted guitar wash, and the haunting strains of a Hammond organ. As Adamson continues along the road to hell, the biblical allusions mount in the apocalyptic swing of “What It Means;” the simmering strings of “Come Hell Or High Water;” and the centerpiece, “Jazz Devil,” where Adamson proclaims ‘you can call me agent 00666’ during the John Barry-esque bombast of its chorus. It’s here that the narrative takes its turn, Adamson losing his femme fatale while gaining reentry into the land of the living.
From here on in it’s a quest for redemption filled with righteous self-determination and lapses into temptation. Adamson rants stream-of-consciousness lyrics over raging bomb-squad hip-hop on “Still I Rise” as he claws his way out of the post-surgery opiate-haze; gets waylaid by the horny oozing synths and dry-humping bass of “Girl” (a Suicide cover); and addresses his race on the sleazy throb and delirious screams of “The Monkey Speaks His Mind.” It’s telling of Adamson’s sly sense of humour that his eventual ascent into heaven in “Jesus Wept” is preceded by a burbling, backmasked nightmare that sounds twice as scary as his images of hell.
If you were to match this album with a movie, it would be Alan Parker’s Angel Heart, the saxophone mirroring the croon of Courtney Pine's and Barry even murmuring quotes from the film as the narrative touches upon its themes and murky atmosphere. Yeah it’s melodramatic, and maybe just a little bit pretentious, but Adamson plays it like he lives it and his ear for varied soundtrack forms processed through cool jazz, grinding industrial, funky house, beatsy hip-hop, and rousing rock makes As Above So Below both hip and hypnotic.
***
IMAGES
As Above So Below*
(album cover used under fair dealing)
*images on this page were taken from the following Shot By Both Sides page:
Adamson Solo
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