The Long Slow Death of Big Joan - Big Joan
Posted on 30th November 2011
Download and LTD Cd album
30th November 2011
And just in time for Christmas! The long awaited Big Joan album number 2 is out and kicks some serious arse! Big Joan, named after the Captain Beefheart song When Big Joan Sets Up, and are the much-loved post-punk synth noise rock band from Southampton via Bristol. When someone says Big Joan, ears prick up and compliments are dished like hot chocolate sponge cake in the school dinner hall! People love this band, and who can blame them. The Long Slow Death of Big Joan has been in the pipeline for over a year and includes much of their set list for the same period.
One of the most intriguing things about Big Joan’s music is their ability to share their music with themselves equally, as opposed to there being one or two main songwriters. Let me explain; there are four members all with very distinctive styles – Adam Burrows’ slicing, crunching guitar sounds a kin to Shellac or the harder tones of Thurston Moore on a less textured day, Simon Jarvis’ Bass harnessing every last groove by stabbing through the floor boards of low end, Keith Hall’s fat rhythms, on-the-money off-beats, oddness and the non-obvious embraced with shuffles and Bossa Nova’s peppered throughout, and Annette Berlin’s wow factor vocals, riotous and assertive. These ingredients are served up in equal measure and with equal space. For a band that has been going for about 10 years it is pretty impressive.
This album demonstrates Big Joan perfectly; they have captured their blisteringly engaging live performance on record with the help of Geisha’s Anton Maiovvi in Berlin on production duties and Ali Chant in Bristol on recording ones. Opening track, (They Call Him) Johnny, is a hard edged, spook-y bass, drums and synth over layed with monotone lyric Oh my god it’s raining again I’ve got to leave the house. Funeral is a depressed subversion with a strange fairy-tale vocal melody twisting and soaring through a synth-pop slow burn, and face-melter 888 with Annette’s vocal like a caffined-up Karen O kung fu kicking the music into an industrial noise cylinder with totally arresting results, and Show!’s guitar heavy, souring riff’s crunched, overdriven and relentless with an aggression laden NICO-on-a-speedball vocal!
I could go on… and on, but I need to remain somewhat professional and stick to words that people understand instead of QWERTY board drooling! Uncompromising, assertive, blistering and full of energy overall a brilliant album! Love!
- Miss Gardiner
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