Dan Melchoir - K-85 LP

Dan first came to the attention of music snobs and record collectors worldwide in the mid '90s with his band The Broke Revue, and via collaborations with fellow Brits Billy Childish and Holly Golightly. Dan and his band started out playing a thudding blues-based rumble, but a fiercely individualistic streak which lies at the core of his music fuelled a rapid morphing into a more twisted take on things, incorporating oddly timed riffs, oddball arrangements and psychedelic drag outs. Relocation to New York, marriage to Letha Rodman and a few more albums, and the Broke Revue were dust. The creative drive unfettered, Dan seemed scarcely to skip a beat, releasing home recordings as Dan Melchior Und Das Menace, solo and in collaboration with his wife and with others. While an ever-broadening array of ideas and experiments with sounds appears on record, an honest and unique voice shines through; never, as he puts it, obscured by fuzz or a fear of exposing who he is. K-85 is one of Dan's more song-based albums, with lo-fi electronic interludes interspersed between and occasionally through. Lyrical themes deal with some familiar standbys: isolation, daily humdrum, contempt for contemporary culture and a failure to be honest with ourselves. An occasional feigned Luddism might seem at odds with the bastard synthesising of traditional folk, but reflects more a weariness with his world from which solace can be found in the love of his wife Letha.

Tracks:

A1 Dirty Lies


A2 The Prog Prick

A3 Underwater Rollercoaster

A4 Undertow

A5 Mockingbird

A6 Being of Lights

B1 Extortionate Shit

B2 Air Nippon

B3 FFF

B4 Gabor

B5 Killroy's Ghost

B6 She's a Creeper