Felt - Let the Snakes Crinkle Their Heads to Death (1986)

Felt, in my humble opinion, is the quintessential band; they are the epitome of tasteful, aware, and ultimately splendid music. Excuse me for being hyperbolic, but Lawrence is the grand genius of modern pop; his brilliance in all facets of his career surpasses any other musician by a long shot. Churning out 10 albums and 10 EPs in 10 years (almost as if they planned their career to be systematically perfect, putting out a plethora of material but not overstaying their welcome or burning out). The reason they are so adored by me and countless others is that everything they ever touched was golden. The Felt canon is a display of sheer, unadulterated beauty and magnificence. Over the span of 10 years they managed to stay consistent, yet fresh, and transcended their peers by taking a road less traveled.

Let the Snakes Crinkle Their Heads to Death (an ambiguous, yet brilliant title, like all of their album and song titles) is a purely instrumental record, showcasing their musical capabilities without the need for vocal compliments (and a bold, ballsy, almost self-destructive move following their relatively successful attempt at commercialized music, Ignite the Seven Cannons - perhaps intentionally avoiding the fame that they were on the cusp of achieving at the time?). This album was forged around the juncture right after Maurice Deebank left the band, so I'd assume Lawrence and Martin Duffy are responsible for the compositions this time around. It's an evocative piece of work and one of their best, although to say which Felt album is best - that's like choosing a favorite child. A little on the short side, but suitably so, this is simply a collection of nice, quaint gems that can be taken at face value: good music.

Rating: 9.5/10

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Felt - Ballad of the Band EP (1986)

Isn't this cover photo of Lawrence in his vintage fedora just splendid? I liked it so much I made a Felt-inspired painting based on the image. This “12 EP released in 1986 has a distinct dichotomy between its first two A-side and last two B-side songs and is probably my favorite Felt EP. The first two tracks are classic Felt, indie pop at its finest. “I Didn’t mean to Hurt You” carries a motif of apologetic acknowledgment of malfeasance, while “Ballad of the Band” is about the hardships of maintaining a band on the cusp of commercial success, but never attaining it and presumably about Maurice Deebank’s departure, considering this was released in late ’86 after Deebank had already left (my guess is Lawrence is referring to him in the early in the song “Where you been / haven’t seen you for weeks / you’ve been hanging out with / those Jesus freaks”) The marrow on the record, however, are the gorgeous Satie-esque piano pieces, scintillating with beauty and sadness, and subtly suggestive. They bring to mind lost memories, people and places long eaten by time and were, musically, another horizon tackled by the ever-eclectic band. I’m not sure if Lawrence himself is actually doing the piano work on these, but as Trains Above the City showed (which he didn’t have anything to with outside of titling the songs), its possible it was someone else who did the composing and arrangements. Whichever the case, this is a beautiful record with immense contrast, but which shines with equal measure on both sides.

Rating: 10/10

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Go-Kart Mozart Discography

Lawrence Hayward, one of the greatest and most under-appreciated musicians since the dawn of pop music. His history is an almost ironic one, as he should have achieved commercial success countless times, but fatefully never managed to take Felt above ground (which was probably for the best, as his fantastic and eccentric post-Felt career trajectory most likely wouldn't have happened otherwise). Rising like a phoenix from the ashes of Denim, and similar to the sounds found on Novelty Rock and Denim on Ice, came Lawrence's techno pastiche "hyper pop" outfit, clad in an array of layered synthesizers. Bordering on self parody, Go-Kart Mozart's wry and satirical lyrics touch on a broad range of random, goofy, self-aware topics. The songs themselves are short and spastic, are almost entirely electronic, unlike early Denim, which had a more guitar oriented sound. Both of these albums are indeed "novelty techno" as I've heard them dubbed, but they are really special records in my book. Tearing Up the Album Charts is probably the better of the two, but much like choosing your favorite child, its too difficult to say for sure. Fans of Felt and Denim - I speak of these albums in glowing tones - don't miss out on this.

Includes:

Instant Wigwam and Igloo Mixture (1999)
Tearing Up The Album Charts (2005)

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Felt - The Splendour of Fear (1984)

For those of you who are not acquainted, let me tell you plainly: Felt were the greatest band to have ever existed on the planet. Felt consisted, in their initial incarnation on Cherry Red Records, of two key members: Lawrence Hayward (or just Lawrence, by preference), the brainchild and song-writer, and Maurice Deebank, a classically-trained guitarist and general technician for the band. Maurice Deebank has some amazing and profound solo recordings which I'll eventually get around to posting at some point, but for now let's focus on Felt's The Splendour of Fear

The Splendour of Fear is one Felt album of particular importance. It has no peers, either in its time, nor to this day. It is a truly unique creation and stands apart even from Felt's later work. The song titles, like all Felt song titles are evocative and meaningful and feel like they have some relationship to and further embellish the songs themselves. The music itself is subtly epic. It ebbs and flows as artifice reproducing the natural world and contains within its pulsating veins all the beauty subsumed within. It calls to mind great voyages: The Santa Maria de la Inmaculada Concepción sailing proudly across the Atlantic, The the unflinching boldness of the westward expansion into unexplored territory, the conquistadors, entire histories. It is the alluring soundtrack to affairs of ages past. This is truly a timeless album and one of the finest works of art in modern composition.

Rating: 10/10

DOWNLOAD: http://rapidshare.com/files/407118852/Felt_-_The_Splendour_of_Fear.zip

Complete Denim discography

Lawrence is the ultimate purveyor of alterity, a true eccentric. While other bands toured rigorously, Felt played very few live performances. The music of Felt disregarded all of the influences of the decade and went down its own path, making them stand out like a shining beacon amidst a vast horde of musical doppelgangers, and unfortunately leaving them in limbo, unable to surpass the cult-status they had acquired for themselves. While Felt was tender, beautiful, and reflective, Denim is the most refined form of jocular pastiche, perhaps more so than Momus even. What's more is that a good handful of the upbeat, synth-oriented, 70's inspired songs on these albums could have been radio hits in some other alternate dimension where brilliancy and genius were recognized and respected. "Summer Smash" is a better pop song than anything I've ever heard played on the radio. Always intellectually self-aware, Lawrence facetiously offers social commentary on everything from the consumption of force-fed popular music by the public, to class and social issues, to the tumultuous tidal shifts of shaky relationships, to drugs, to sex, to punk and rock 'n roll in general, and a wide variety of playful or serious off the wall topics. For Lawrence, no stone is left unturned.

Here's what this collection includes. I believe it's everything (including a rare, unreleased not quite up to par record featuring a few songs that would later appear on a Go-Kart Mozart album)

Back in Denim (1992)
Denim on Ice (1996)
Novelty Rock (1997)
Summer Smash EP (1997)
Denim Take Over (Unreleased 1998)

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Denim's video for "Middle of the Road":