Reviewed by Paul J Zickler
Released: 1981 Danny Graham Promotional Copy Only Genre: Experimental Pop Rating: 2.5 out of 5 Highlights: Middle Class Romance (Infatuation) Sliding Into Slinterland There are two Danny Graham albums on Discogs. The one that came out in 1980 gets rave reviews in various places online as a lost gem, etc. This one from 1981 is referred to as “some of those Can-like experimental uptempo sounds typical of late 70s German 'art rock' and inevitably the 1980s jumpy style of drumming and choppy guitar playing.” (from Progress Review blog) The YouTube version (the only place to find the full album online as far as I can tell) is so very muddy, it’s almost hard to listen to. Sounds like about a 106 kbps transfer from a dusty vinyl copy. Maybe it was supposed to sound that way? I hope not. Some of this music is not without its charms. Middle Class Romance (Infatuation) rocks a college radio beat under some silly-but-not-annoying octave-leaping hiccupy vocals. Sliding Into Slinterland pulls off a sweet enough groove to stay fresh, although I think there’s something in the lyrics about Mama having enough cocaine for everybody (it’s hard to tell exactly what Danny’s singing most of the time). Nobody (But Nobody) Asks Me Sailing exemplifies the jumpy drumming and choppy guitar playing of the review quoted above, but it’s not much fun. Most of this is jumpy, choppy, repetitive, and unstructured. Lots of precious and/or whiny speak-singing over three note Casio bleats, which eventually begins to wear on my patience. If I had an actual copy of the album and could make out the lyrics better, there might be something to this little venture. It’s certainly got its own thing going, just not in a way that appeals to me much at all.
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