So imagine three musicians from the Victorian era somehow got their hands on a time-machine, and transported themselves to modern day. Then imagine they stumbled around in awe of all the cars, advances in pornography, lolcats, and then somehow ended up wandering into a Shellac gig…you still following me? good, pay attention. Now imagine that they returned home, and tried to recreate the music they had just witnessed.
Ok, so the first problem would be the lack of electricity right? How can you recreate post-hardcore without electricity. The electric guitar is at least 50 years away – amplification is hard to achieve – so you’d have to just find the next best thing. I’m guessing you’d go for a violin, piano, and some form of drum (the first drum kit appeared around 1909, but I’m sure they could fashion something similar).
Berlin based trio Very Short Shorts sound like the product of the above scenario. Only I imagine they probably use that new fangled ‘electrickery’ to produce their strangely baroque blend of music. Think John Zorn’s ‘Naked City’, meets Jon Kaada’s ‘Cloroform’, meets some kind of victorian picture house band and you’re on the right track.
I must admit, I was expecting this to sound like a film score, partially due to it’s title, and partially because of the instruments of choice; but that’s not really the case. The music veers between sinister pacing, up-beat stabs, and in the case of ‘Moustache’, down right jauntiness.
a very cool album, and well worth picking up.
Ken Eakins
VeryShortShorts | Myspace Music Videos
I loved the track on Behind. Ordering this for sure next week!
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