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Napoleon IIIrd/Pagan Wanderer Lu Brainlove 150

Napoleon IIIrd, Pagan Wanderer Lu: Brainlove 7" Club no. 1

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by ben marwood

Melodic electronica, how we love thee. The first offering from the Brainlove Records Singles Club scoops songs from Napoleon IIIrd and Pagan Wanderer Lu from the sizzling baking tray and shovels it into our hungry, fat mouths.

Napoleon IIIrd’s ‘Hit Schmooze For Me’ is the audio equivalent of a Magic Eye picture. Initially, it all seems random - voices come at you, pausing after each word, accompanied by a lazy, laid-back and tripped-out beat, imitation brass section and all, before it drops out to let the discordant almost-harmonies of the chorused vocals take the lead. After a while, things take shape, patterns appear as parts are repeated, a chorus is formed, yelled and double-tracked like an irate Tunng at war with his day job. Come the second verse, one line is sung using two different vocal patterns and the results laid over each other, intertwining briefly before an uptempo disco beat brings the whole thing into line, the intricately woven picture complete in proud 3D.

Proudly displaying a multitude of influences, ‘Repetition #1’ begins with folk guitar and finger-plucked chords before a simple Casio rhythm kicks in and xylophone-imitating keyboards sweep over the song’s bridge. Seconds later, Pagan Wanderer Lu hits the button on the ejector seat and the entire thing is replaced by the soundtrack to a coin-op arcade game, with all parts held together through a repeated kick drum in the background. Whether it’s Nintendo-folk, folktronica or Casio-coustic, it sounds like someone gleefully hammering together two pieces of a jigsaw that aren’t supposed to fit, and the song only settles down as Lu’s comforting voice leads out with “When you die, what goes through your mind?” set to the light chords of a keyboard.

Two songs, two snippets of electronica to bother the grey matter: the rest of the singles club has a lot to live up to.

  • Napoleon IIIrd 7 / 10
  • Pagan Wanderer Lu 7 / 10

Do you reckon

Brainlove will ever get a bad review on DiS?


yeah.

DiS is all about the nepotism. top marks to you for spotting it!


pfffffffffffffffffffffffffft.

a 7 aint exactly brain-shatteringly high, is it?

play nice, kids.


exactly

if it was 5 though, you'd probably still say he always gets high reviews.


'He'?

It's not a review of me.
...


yes

when Brainlove does something bad.

Now, run along and play with your Lego.


'wrightylew', is this you?

dancing with your friends?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L3VjFT6xE_U

top marks!


so

did they taste great or not?


Will Wrightylew ever not get a good review on here?

You ALWAYS give him good marks.


i always give wrighty a good review

he's my favourite Bad Guy


HAHA!


Fat

saddo.



Postscript to that review.

Jordan emailed me asking what a certain favourite track of his was because he'd lost the tracklisting. It was Napoleon IIIrd.


BOLLOCKS!

I forgot to sign up to this.

Can I still do so?


Yeah!

We're accepting memberships throughout - if you sign up late, it means you get all the "back issues" in one go.

www.brainloverecords.com/brainlove7club

:)


will do it

someday...


someday

when I'll have cash and will think to go to an change agency.
Why is your country not using euros ?


or perhaps

you're wise on this particular case...


it must be difficult

to write objectively about the work of friends and colleagues...

it's the kind of situation that must make a critic feel compromised, and if they don't like something would the inclination be to write 'more in sorrow than in anger' because of the greater empathy/sympathy toward monsieur brainlove?

Isn't that worth pondering, rather than just leaping to poor old DiS' defence...?


true

and it works both ways. if you really like something of a colleague, you dont feel like you could score it as high as you'd like to, just in case someone jumps up and down and says something really dim like "Do you reckon Brainlove will ever get a bad review on DiS?"

rest assured, this single is worth a 7, easily.


it really is

both tracks are superb

Just because many people know and love Brainlove doesn't mean he isn't releasing great records.

Plus, we all know restlessboy who actually penned and sung one of these songs, and that is superb.


Yeah if anything, I've felt like people

who've reviewed Brainlove stuff on here have been a little cautious with the marks, rather than marking something high. I don't mind. I mean, my job is just to make sure things get reviewed at all, and the marks are out of my hands innit.


I bumped into

Napoleon last night. Lovely hair.


Isn't it large?

And... ROUND





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