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REVIEWS
Strange
Fortune
Michael J. Salo on 9 November 2005
To me this album is a welcome and unexpected meeting of two divergent
camps of the experimental post-industrial music world.
Tony Wakeford is of course one of the main players in what has become
the dark neofolk scene, or whatever you like to call it. It's a
post-industrial music scene in origin that has gone back and appropriated
elements of tradition, to the point where the industrial roots become
more and more obscured. Sol Invictus for instance haven't released
an easily identifiable "industrial" album since Lex Talionis
in 1990.
On the other hand, coming from a similar background you have experimentalists
such as Nurse with Wound, Hafler Trio, and HNAS who rather than
seeking authenticity, choose to take their music to ever newer and
weirder realms. On this side one might include current drone artists
such as Mirror and William Basinski. I'm not too familiar with Andrew
Liles's solo work in particular but by all accounts he fits in over
here somewhere.
Personally I'm an enthusiast of both music scenes, especially when
they mix, as in some of the early to mid-period Current 93 albums.
Now after years of these scenes drifting apart I was curious whether
such a meeting could work any longer. Happily this album has come
along and the answer turns out to be a resounding, dazzling, affirmative.
It's a magical mystical listen all the way through. The well-composed
acoustic basis of the album shines like Sol Invictus or l'Orchestre
Noir at its most majestic. It has the depth of a full ensemble yet
going by the credits, there is no supporting band, it's just Wakeford
and Liles, which suggests to me a level of genuine technical musical
ability I hadn't quite realized.
The electronic enhancement, mostly down to Liles one might guess,
takes the results to an even higher level. It serves as a perfect
musical counterpoint, adding new and unexpected sonic facets to
every passage, keeping my interest high. The clarity of these fluid,
ever-moving electronic tones and the haunting, chime-like quality
seems to share some spirit and sonic common ground with Tor Lundvall.
The downsides? None really. This is an all instrumental album, no
vocals, limiting its commercial appeal somewhat, as does the un-intriguing
album name _Cups in Cardboard_ and project name (officially this
duo is called "The Wardrobe"(!)). Not too much here as
far as liner notes or artwork, although it's attractive enough,
and personally signed by both artists.
Overall what we have here is a brilliantly refreshing recording
required for connoisseurs who demand the most musically interesting
of what the post-industrial neofolk scene has to offer. It's the
most avant-electronic release of Tony Wakeford since his collaboration
with Stephen Stapleton in 1992. That album is now impossible to
find, and so I would recommend not missing out on this limited edition
offering of just 500.
Vital Weekly
Music by Andrew Liles was called here 'a more electronic
version of Nurse With Wound', and him being english it may be no
surprise that he knows musicians such as Nurse With Wound (of whom
he was a member during a recent concert in Vienna), Colin Potter
and Tony Wakeford.
I will readily admit I am no fan of Wakeford's previous musical
encounters, such as being a member of Current 93 and Sol Invictus
- that particular alley in music (dark, folky music) was always
closed to me. So, I must say that with a little reservation that
I started playing The Wardrobe, a collaboration between Wakeford
and Liles. My fear it would be Liles' kind of music mixed with Wakeford's
music and singing. Luckily I was wrong, since it's much more along
the lines of Liles than Wakeford's (admitting again, that I am not
aware of his entire catalogue in music).
Sampled music plays a big role here, sampled bassoons and baroque
music, sampled electro-acoustic sounds and sampled orchestrations
are all mixed into a fine blend cinematographic musics. Small delicate
sketches of bittersweet melodies that may or may not provide the
soundtrack for a haunted house movie. The cupboard in the dining
room which has all the answers and mysteries, is at the same the
metaphor for the music: every drawer seem to have it's own music,
something similar to others and sometimes entirely different. More
Liles than Wakeford, but fans of both can be pleased, or like me,
pleasantly surprised. (FdW)
Brainwashed
Written by Jen Warren
Saturday, 24 December 2005
The Wardrobe is a collaboration with Sol Invictus driving force
Tony Wakeford and Andrew Liles; the release more resembles Wakeford's
work with Matt Howden than Sol Invictus. Cups in Cupboard is limited
to 500 signed copies and is released on Wakeford's own label Tursa.
Throughout the album images arise of time passing, empty and dusty
rooms filled with the distorted tinkling of a music box, furniture
left behind in an abandoned manor, and an atmosphere of grandeur
faded and forgotten but not gone. Pianos, strings, and chimes are
manipulated, layered, and paired with underlying low snarls. Almost-liturgical
chants mingle with muted brass. The music is harsh at times but
always stately, muted but never muddy, shrouded but not obscured.
"Arcade" begins as something like a carousel or circus
tune, but distorted, dark, and muted as if echoing through thick
fog, then deteriorates into something more foreboding before sliding
into soft chimes. "Wind in the Willows" brings in footsteps,
trickling and bubbling water, and wind sweeping past age-rippled
windows. The penultimate track "Windows" has more of a
Sol feel than the rest of the album with prominent acoustic guitar.
< a brief 46 minutes Cups in Cupboard still had the power to distort
all my perceptions of time. The feeling that's left is of a gentle
dread and a yearning for things lost.
Michael J. Salo
on 8 November 2006
One of my favorite albums
of '05 was the first Tony Wakeford & Andrew Liles collaboration
as The Wardrobe titled 'Cups in Cupboard', which I felt to be an
evocative blend of folk-noir acoustics and strange electronic accompaniment.
That one was a tiny edition of 500, and a number of them were lost
en route across the Atlantic so it's even less. A real rarity if
you have one.
'Cups' remains deleted but now we are presented a
new album from this curious duo.
This yankee can be a little slow to keep up with those zany Brits
and their vast arsenal of witty expressions, so the first task at
hand was to look up the title, 'A Sandwich Short'. OK, this expression
means "lacking in intelligence."
The absurd choice of a title carries on something of a tradition
for Wakeford's most avant garde releases, going back to 'Revenge
of the Selfish Shellfish' with Steven Stapleton (designed to be
a "totally stupid" project, according to Stapleton in
'England's Hidden Reverse').
The silly spirit is further represented by the giant sandwich appearing
on the back cover art probably not a romantic enough image
for say, a Sol Invictus album.
Despite the lighthearted side to the proceedings there's always
been much beauty to be found in Wakeford's experimental efforts,
and this album begins with a piano led piece that continues in the
vein of the dark romantic, filmic qualities of 'Cups'.
From there, 'Sandwich' starts getting weirder and more sinister.
Where 'Cups' maintained a relatively consistent vibe, 'Sandwich'
is better described as being made up of many different parts, each
track having its own odd character. The acoustic instrumentation
and electronic sounds change with every track, dabbling in everything
from accordian to didgeridoo.
Despite the varied musical approach there's a particular atmosphere
of menace that stays through this album. There are a number of dramatic
peaks in the music, contrasting with the consistently mellow
'Cups'.
The foremost peak of the album is surely the remake of "Lucifer
Before Sunrise," originally by Wakeford & Stapleton. It's
years since I heard the original, I don't recall exactly what it
sounded like, but here it is just the most delightfully Satanic
track, its misanthropic lyrics made specially potent by being delivered
by the sweet young lasses, Helen & Alice Potter. A brilliant
idea.
It's hard to say for certain but my impression is the overall composition
of this album is heavy on the Andrew Liles influence, where the
previous release feels more like it's led by Wakeford and accompanied
by Liles.
In summary, 'Sandwich' ranks as perhaps the weirdest album Tony
Wakeford has ever released, and it even comes out on the weird side
for Andrew Liles.
Everyone who enjoyed 'Cups in Cupboard' should surely pick this
up to hear where they've taken the project next. Everybody else
who enjoys their folk noir with a touch of sonic madness should
also have a listen, along with anyone who happens to like their
surreal electronics with a dash of real acoustics and some good
old Satanism thrown in for fun.
BRAINWASHED
Written by Jonathan Dean
Monday, 27 November 2006
It is nice to know that there
are still people out there with very strange ideas, sufficiently
demonstrated by this album, the second collaborative effort from
Tony Wakeford and Andrew Liles. However, in a world in which Nurse
With Wound is working on a HipHop album, and David Tibet is both
a professed Christian and a cabinet member of the OTO, perhaps the
word "strange" needs to be redefined.
For their second outing as The Wardrobe, Liles and Wakeford redefine
the parameters of strangeness with an album that marries lovely,
emotive, nostalgic instrumentals to the shudders and creaks of old
Victoriana. More often than not, the songs meander and drift through
the cobwebby attics of old English country houses, the eerie and
insistent presence of memory creating an uncanny atmosphere that
fairly sparks with ghostly electricity. Eerie electrical portals
to other worlds are found amidst the creaking floorboards and old,
out-of-tune pianos, dusty guitars and rusty accordions. Without
warning, atmospheric melodies are overtaken by the free play of
the unconscious, eccentric intrusions from out of the ether, snatches
of warped dialogue, wobbly old 78s or incongruous sound effects
suites pop in and out with a refreshing absence of logic.
Whereas the title of Cups in Cupboard, the duo's first album, signified
a measured appropriateness—cups in the cupboard, everything
in its right place—the title of this sophomore album suggests
incompleteness, lunacy and lame-brained-ness: "She's a few
sandwiches short of a picnic, that one." Apropos of this contrast
in title, the new album is not as pleasing and tuneful as that first
album, preferring instead to push out the boundaries of discomfort,
finding ever newer ways to subtly dislocate the listener in time
and space. While the opening piano dirge "Wednesday" seems
to start off in the same general ballpark as Cups, it soon descends
into an eerie, droning netherworld, with a tinkling counter-melody
that constantly threatens to derail the funereal proceedings. Everything
finally digresses into buzzing electric insectoid oblivion, a miasma
of withering 19th century parlor music, like watching a Merchant
Ivory film on acid.
Things only get wackier from this point with the whimsically ramshackle
"Horse With One Leg" and the heavily intoxicated, messily
percussive strains of "Another Drink?". "Lucifer
Before Sunrise" will be the most pleasurable track for old-school
Nurse With Wound fans, a reworking of a track that originally appeared
on Stapleton and Wakeford's sole collaboration The Revenge of the
Selfish Shellfish. This time, the deeply weird crypto-Satanic text
is read aloud by Colin Potter's daughters (internal rhyme unintentional),
as skeletal guitar figures are licked by crackling flames. The Potter
girls' spooky voices are twisted and mutated, scattered around the
stereo channels, before being joined by Wakeford's morbid, gravelly
vocals, so familiar from well-worn Sol Invictus records from the
past two decades. Everything you loved about the English underground
esoteric music scene, all in the span of five minutes.
Since Current 93 and Nurse With Wound have apparently decided to
take permanent vacations from these kinds of fucked gothic sound
experiments, it's nice to hear the flag still being carried by Liles
and Wakeford. A Sandwich Short is the perfect mix of disarming melodies
and outre electronic textures, with lots of delightfully menacing
moments of plain, old-fashioned sinister whimsy.
LUNAR HYPNOSIS
The Wardrobe is a collaboration between Andrew Liles and Tony Wakeford.
Andrew who is a long running electronic/experimental composer has
worked with such artists as Bass Communion, Hafler Trio, Steven
Stapleton, and Karl Blake to name but a few, while Tony Wakeford
is of course the mastermind behind Sol Invictus, L’Orchestre
Noir, and as well many other projects.
I’d have to say my initial reaction to this record was a weird
one. As I pulled the CD out of the envelope my eyes meet with the
picture of the sandwich that graces the back cover of the album
and then flipped it over to see the weird cover image of a doll.
I couldn’t help but chuckle a little more when I opened the
booklet and seen the picture of two very unenthusiastic men, one
of which, Mr. Wakeford was sitting down with a gigantic fish in
hand.
‘A Sandwich Short,’ which means lacking in intelligence
is the second album released by this duo, while the first and now
deleted ‘Cups in Cupboard’ was released last year. I
unfortunately missed this album so I really don’t know if
this album bares similarities to the debut or to Andrews’s
normal music. One thing for sure though is that this isn’t
really the usually thing from Tony.
Musically now The Wardrobe offers up an assortment of acoustic guitars,
ambiance, electronics, neo classical elements, cabaret music, experimentation,
and besides that just a lot of weirdness. There isn’t any
sort of actual genre classification you can file this under as everything
is quite random and unexpected. Vocals are nearly completely absent
from the recording with the exception of some narration on the song
‘Lucifer Before Sunrise’ by Helen and Alice Potter who
are the daughters of Colin Potter. This particular song is also
a cover of sorts as it was originally a song made by Tony and Steven
Stapleton several years ago. There are other vocal appearances on
the album, but I believe they are just samples, but they may also
be Andrew speaking.
Each track definitely has their own identity to them. Some are piano
based songs, while others feature ambiance and neo classical sounds
merging together, a few are acoustic dirges, but a lot of them are
just odd and experimental and probably are closest sounding to Nurse
With Wound. The album carries a lot of sentiments too; creepy, ominous,
melancholic, silly, and just plain indescribable.
In one hand I’m really enjoying the album, but due to its
diversity it really is a tough listen. However there are some very
enjoyable moments here and there and I can honestly say I’ll
come back to this album from time to time to see if it starts to
click into place better.
November 14, 2006
By JJM
RE:GEN MAGAZINE
Posted: Friday, September 21, 2007
By: Vlad McNeally
Wakeford and Liles lead one
through a distorted Narnia on this journey that is one part neo-classical
and two parts experimentalism.In those musical circles that can
only be vaguely described as apocalyptic or neo-folk, Tony Wakeford
presides like a chairman of the board. Known predominantly for his
extensive work as the central force behind Sol Invictus, he has
also appeared as an assistant to other such genre luminaries as
Current 93 and Death in June over the course of his extensive career.
That being said, this release only vaguely touches upon his gloomy,
Anglo-centric folk roots. Instead, this collaboration with Andrew
Liles, named The Wardrobe, is best compared with his brief past
dalliances with the maestro of dark dada music, Nurse With Wound.
A Sandwich Short is less a collection of songs than it is a cinematic
journey. It is a sojourn through a gloomy and morose land, a shadowy
place where one encounters songs and melodies like fellow wanderers
also lost on these same moors. The somber "Wednesday"
opens this volume like the white rabbit, tricking the folk-minded
listener into following it into down his hole and into the realm
of the surreal. Its timbre is deep and its cadence at the speed
of an old man considering his mortality on a winter night. In its
footsteps dwells the dissonant metallic hum of violins, their off-key
peal akin to a concerto tuning up for a performance. While this
beginning seems rather straightforward if one's familiar with Wakeford's
penchant for the dreary, "A Horse with One Leg" abruptly
reminds us that this place is not Sol Invictus. It is an off-kilter
accordion creature, one that capers about honking and hooting, innocent
and toy-like. Yet despite its merriment, there’s a lingering
feeling of something less pleasant pulling at its strings. Similar
in its sinister whimsy, "In Defence of Shoplifting" sounds
like an urgent shopping cart. Its wheels spin and hiss through knots
of lint, chugging about its five minute expanse. When it pauses,
it is only for a pick-pocketed moment, and in its furtive moments,
one can hear the leery pluck and mutter of strings, and the echoing
clang of spoons on steel. On the other hand, pieces like "Rural
Murders" do not even attempt to hide behind a friendly facade.
It buzzes with nerve-tingling falsetto crystals and rings with the
tinkle of equally stressed piano as if on the precipice of its own
death.
If pining for vocals, there are only a few verbal morsels that Wakeford
and Liles throw our way. Originally written for a collaboration
between Wakeford and the aforementioned Nurse With Wound, "Lucifer
Before Sunrise" appears here resurrected and rewritten. It
crackles like embers in a fireplace, while guitar morosely plods
through a few somber bass-throated chords. As this fire snaps and
chatters, guests Helen and Alice Potter recite the original’s
lyrics as if attempting to translate an ancient spell. Eventually,
discordant piano intercepts the guitar, silencing it with its own
throaty mutter, leaving Tony Wakeford to finally appear and give
us a hint of his acclaimed folk ennui. Finally, "Wednesday
(Again)" returns to close out this chapter of A Sandwich Short.
Offering up a reprise of its partner's piano and another slender
sliver of Wakeford's voice, this listener was left wishing that
Wakeford's sublime baritone was given a bit more room on this disc.
Though this journey ended up being a more peculiar one than I suspected,
A Sandwich Short is still an interesting jaunt through the dark
ambient corners of experimentalism. Like Nurse With Wound, one should
not expect anything straightforward. There's still enough of Wakeford's
traditionalist charm to keep it from being a total oddity, but on
the other hand, it might not be strange enough for those pining
for something truly peculiar. That said, it's still a worthwhile
collaboration, and one that won't displease fans of either Wakeford's
or Liles' work.
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