'He's on the phone for an hour... he's calling to tell me that he thinks he's Hitler... he's not manic and he's not depressive. He's not a manic depressive or schizophrenic. Just thinks he was Adolf Hitler in a past life.' So begins 'Adolf Hitler,' the opening track on Misterlee's third album proper, shortly before all hell breaks loose with clattering rhythms and clanging guitars bouncing and clashing from every which way.
Lee Allatson - aka Misterlee - is one of those bonafide eccentrics you don't find very often. I've actually had this album in my possession for a few months now, but it's taken me this long to get my head around it sufficiently to compose a review that coherently conveys the wild imagination that fills every corner of the recordings. I suppose 'This Disquiet Dog' falls into the 'avant-garde' bracket, incorporating a host of off-beat and seemingly randomly improvised sonic elements in the backdrop to Lee's largely spoken word tangential spoutings.
Rumbling dark ambient interludes and heavy pulsing beats punctuate 'Stags of Schipol', and there's a paired-down rockabilly feel to 'We're Alive Here' - until a thumping glammy rhythm kicks in and gives out some solid bottom end. All the while, Lee's lyrics are unstinting in their inventiveness, his delivery unswervingly dispassionate and detached as he rattles off a series of images of war and death and strangeness. In many ways, this encapsulates everything that makes 'This Disquiet Dog' such a fascinating album. There isn't a track that fails to surprise, that doesn't do something different, that isn't highly idiosyncratic.
|
The closest comparison I can make is to Mark E. Smith, both in terms of bizarre lyrical content and delivery, shunning conventional musicality for quirkiness and overall sonic effect. In fact, much of 'This Disquiet Dog' does vaguely resemble the obligatory experimental tracks that graced early Fall albums, although Lee presents something rather more palatable than forty minutes of 'W.M.C. Blob-59' and 'Papal Visit' rehashes, instead offering a unique take on, well, everything really. Recommended if you're feeling adventurous.
Misterlee on MySpace
|
