Firstly, a short introduction:
By way of The Joy Formidable and SXSW, I first met Dave Kennedy at the NPR showcase. His own enthusiasm for a little band from Wales was on par with my own, and that was enough for me to begin inquiries into his mental state. But he’s alright and now he’s our special guest blogger.
Having recently returned from SXSW where he saw Bearsuit perform live, Dave wrote this excellent review of their new album.
— P Dysart
Some seven years ago John Peel described them thus “in an era when almost everything is quite like something else, Bearsuit are not quite like anything”. To this day this remains my most esteemed quote from the legendary DJ. Back then they were regular visitors to Peel Acres and they reached the heady heights of runner-up spot in one of the noughties festive 50’s as well as having entries in the following year’s charts. He also said of The Fall, “Always the same, always different”; this is equally true of the Norwich funsters. So with a backdrop of the highest critical acclaim, how come so few have loved; or even heard them for that matter?
And there lies the issue; Bearsuit are a dichotomy; a division of two parts: one part pop melodies that swoon and swirl, but an equal part that rips and burns like razor blades being swallowed without cotton wool. Sort of Riot Girl meets Cocteau Twins meets Sebadoh, but on acid and lemonade and served on burnt toast. Not exactly everyone’s tipple of Rosy Lee. Now stripped down to a raw 5-piece, gone are the accordions, trumpets, horns, xylophones, violins, life support machines, capes and beaks; gone are many members to babies, rabies and civilian life. What remains still is the delightful song-writing talents of psychobabble guitar spokesperson Iain Ross and his sidekick maniac toonsmith Lisa Horton. Or, to you, wonderwoman on speed singer/stomper supreme. Backed up by a marvellous bear squad that coos, squawks, screams, thumps and shouts – this new refined line up [warmed up on gas regulo 8] had already bashed out a largely overlooked classic in Oh:io and a clutch of electro beat singles that crazily, have barely caused a ripple outside their Anglian homestead and hardcore fan base.
So to the 2011 Mk 5 Bearsuit and ‘The Phantom Forest’; the first truly great concept album of 2011, and in fantasy terms, probably the pre-eminent recording since Genesis pampered and indulged us way back when with Gabriel’s ‘Lamb Lies Down on Broadway’. From Rael to real-ity. Released to coincide with, well, nothing really (the Bearsuit way is to ask for sponsors, raise a grand, go to SXSW in Texas, lose a packet, cock up the venue for your first gig, play to a handful of people, forget the album was coming out, go home, send the vinyl out yourself, start writing again), so many will not even stumble on this little gem of an offering.
A simple tiger face adorns the cover and paints the scene for what can only be described as a mythical journey through jungles, Narnia-like wardrobes, sea monsters, royalty, Princesses, ghosts, railway crashes, lost love, queens and dinosaurs. A never-ending story for the indiepunk generation. Kajagoogoo eat your mullet wearing hearts out.
Now, like classic albums such as “Closer,” “Tales from Topographic Oceans,” “The Clash” and “Stories from the Sea”; the track running order really matters; it’s a treasure trove of a story to follow from top to toe and it starts with ‘Princess, You’re a Test’ and we know from that point it’s going to be a rocky road to challenge us. Nagging away in the background multi-instrumentalist bear-bird Jan chirps “test, test, test, test” to the infectious one-two-three-four beat’. Our heroine will, at the album’s end, find ‘the Golden Oriole’ in an all-embracing crescendo that reminds the listener of a “Polyphonic Spree” type angelic choir on double happy pills.
After we are momentarily derailed during Ross’s runaway ‘A Train Wreck’, Horton summons the ‘Albino Tiger Rescue Squad’ shouting to her gang to ‘clear a path into her arms’, a song that moves so fast you fear for the safety of the big cats themselves. Later in our quest we enter the spooky world of ‘the Ghosts of The Black Hole’, The most poignant of the offerings here, the duetting between our dual strikers hit heady heights in a slice of beautiful majestic crooning that has Lisa telling us we have ‘black holes for hearts’. If you are not moved by this, then your very soul is made of stone.
Before our benevolence starts to run wild we flirtily skip the spunky two-step in the madcap ‘Cut Loose’. Prior to this all hell has broken loose on the nattily named ‘Jim Henson’s Creature Workshop’. Imagining a Japanese worker called Suki working in the puppet factory dictating submissive terms to her beau, is one madcap minds work. Driven on by Charlene’s industrial strength bass hooks that sound like your Nan’s washing line stretched across a World War 1 trench war field; the album reaches its high point when Horton screams alone as the backbeat dies for a moment, ‘my opinion of you, to date, has been REVISED!’
My thought about these damn bears certainly has done just that, in a skybound manner. On ‘Please don’t take him back’ and ‘When will I be Queen’, our poptastic charmers turn the 80’s disco glitter ball onto full strobe and dance step us through the forest; it’s like a little party before the true quest for our intrepid traveller continues and has the listener body popping like a teenager. DO check out the video for ‘Queen’ for a dance that rivals the cheesiest of wedding day dancehall fashions, going down big time in Greece I hear with the ‘Foo Fighters’.
Once we beat off a deadly squid and the Kraken (sic), sing along with Kwaa Kwaa birds and a Giant Archaeopterx (whatever that may be), we help the Princess to obtain her Golden prize. If I said the four tracks that capture the journey’s end sound like nothing you have ever heard, you will get a sense of what old Peely was evangelising about; perhaps he still hears this stuff up there on a celestial turntable, via the fairy tale heaven wardrobe door.
This is an album that ‘makes the misery into a joy’, an offering that forces you to keep taking the same epic voyage over and over again. 2011 has already thrown up truly mesmerising albums by The Joy Formidable and PJ Harvey; but none will give you as much fun as this elegant stunner. Try them on for size, they may not be to your liking; but if they come anywhere close; they just might win over the romantic and whimsical part of your heart. In the words of Horton & Ross on ‘tentacles’ – “we’ve got to get together, we’ve got to get it on”. Great team those bears.
– Dave Kennedy
The Phantom Forest was released in the UK in Mar 2011 on Fortuna Pop!
The US release is this next week.
http://www.myspace.com/bearsuit
