First of all let me start by saying that this is perhaps the most eclectic record I've heard all year. Is that necessarily a good thing though? Well yes and no, on one hand a lack of cohesion can result in a lack of identity but on the other how many of you are sick to the gills of albums which front-load the singles then spend a good 40 minutes reloading 'more of the same only less so'? Working For A Nuclear City (WFANC from this point onwards) evidently don't care for labels and while this carefree, adventurous spirit might derail lesser talents, this Mancunian 5 piece have managed to push beyond the veil and what lies beyond is truly a thing of wonder.
Whereas at this point I would generally pick highlights and lowlights and discuss the albums plus points and shortcomings, with this record such trivialities seem almost moot. 'Faster Daniel Faster' is a kaleidoscopic patch-work of glistening shoe-gaze which would put Animal Collective to shame and 'Little Lenin' works Beck's Tom Waits goes hip-hop shtick into a distorted, atonal mess which barely hangs together and yet sounds hopelessly entrancing. 'Low' meanwhile takes a hazy 'block-rocking-beat' and mixes in a dash of doped up voices and burned out while Disk 1's kiss off (yes that's right there are 2 disks) 'Buildings' builds a forlorn melody over spare acoustic guitars and wispy, delicate synth hooks. You probably get the point, literally every song on this record comes from a completely different space in the musical spectrum and yet it all binds together so well, like a wonderful, terrifying compilation from a well meaning but deranged ex-girlfriend.
What WFANC have managed to do here basically is distil 2 decades of Mancunian musical heritage (rave, brit-pop, electronica and all) into a frequently inspired, always entertaining electro-punk-indie-pop-hop-rock-dance inferno which reaches it's piece on disk 2 with the title track, a wandering beast of a tune which milks every second out of it's 33 minute duration. Less a song and more of an extended DJ session expertly mixed, mastered and sequenced The Jojo Burger Tempest is an endlessly inventive collage of sound which pulls liberally from electronic pioneers such as Arthur Russell and more recently Aphex Twin as well as from more avant-garde artists such as Can and Sonic Youth, new wavers like Devo, PiL and Wire and even modern dance producers like Felix Da Housecat.
Jojo Burger Tempest is a work of dense, complex wonder which won't be for everyone and will no doubt offend the ears of the mainstream. You will hear nothing else like it this year. Buy it.
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