| CD REVIEW Cate Le Bon |
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Band : Cate Le Bon Cate Le Bon is a singer-songwriter hailing from Cardiff, Wales (UK). She gained her first public attention when supporting Gruff Rhys (of the Super Furry Animals) on his 2007 solo tour in the UK. Since then, she went on to play at the Glastonbury, Latitude and the Green Man Festival events, and appeared as a guest singer on Neon Neon’s 2008 single I Lust U (taken from their album Stainless Style; by the way, Neon Neon is another of Gruff Rhys’ side-projects, and Le Bon was invited to join the band on their European and Japanese tour in 2008). Her own official debut release came with a Welsh-language EP titled Edrych yn Llygaid Ceffyl Benthyg, issued through Peski Records in June 2008 (also released as 10-inch vinyl through Kimberley Records). She also released the double A-sided single No One Can Drag Me Down / Disappear on het website, which Rhys described as (sic): “Bobbie Gentry and Nico fight over a Casio keyboard; melody wins”. Contributing to the songs were violinist Megan Childs (of Gorky’s Zygotic Mynci) and pedal steel player John Thomas (of Super Furry Animals and Thrills). In the press reviews to date, Le Bon has been singled out by the critics for her dark lyrical content and her “haunting” voice…the latter definitely being the first thing you’ll notice when listening to this album! According to Cate herself, she suffers from a lasting effect endured by a string of pet deaths at an early age, and this would explain her “abnormal fixation with death”! Anyway, talking musically, yoou might put Le Bon in the “Dark Folk” category. Here and there, the acoustics are enhanced by a Casio keyboard [adding wacky tunes to such songs as the album opening “Me Oh My” (which is also the only track you can find at myspace.com/catelebon), the weirdly titled “Shoeing The Bones”, and the completely keyboard possessed “Terror Of The Man”…but it’s also played as a “piano” on the songs “Eyes So Bright” and “Digging Song” (the latter also including some harmonica play) and as a “harmonium” during album closer “Out To Sea”]. Overall, the mood is calm and introverted, but halfway “Burn Until The End”, an electric guitar moves in for a somewhat psychedelic/chaotic passage. Vocally, all you get is Cate’s voice, calm, serene, with her somewhat “disturbed” choice of lyrics…like a Welsh angel chanting about the weirdnesses she’s encountered!!! Well, I can certainly see where Rhys got his comparisons from, although you gotta allow for sóme accent in the English vocals. Hey, no Welsh songs on this album, by the way, and neither will you find the tracks she recorded for that self-released single! Apparently, the album was first released in cassette form through Irony Bored Records [And Tapes] (or was it Randomonium Records [And Tapes]?), a division of the Society For Social Progress Through Songwriting, formed during 2007 in Cardiff by Gruff Rhys, Le Bon, and existential broadcaster Huw Evans, and we can count ourselves lucky enough that this little gem of an obscure album has found its way to the rest of Europe as well! Yeah…this is too nice an album to stay hidden away in Wales! 84/100 Tony. |