Jackie O Motherfucker - Volume 1: Fig. 5 & Liberation [Special Edition] (Fire)
4/5
By: Stephen Maughan
Ten years on from the initial release of two of the most experimental albums I've certainly ever come across, Fig. 5 in 2000 followed a year later by Liberation, Jackie O Motherfucker have reissued them in a rather beautifully designed box set to mess with minds all over again, and drive reviewers like me nuts trying to think of interesting ways to describe the indescribably distorted music they perform.
You've heard of free jazz, right? These albums are more like free noise - there’s no boundary between folk, jazz, classical, rock or soul for Jackie O Motherfucker. It's just spontaneous and delicious noise at its purest level.
And by ‘purest level’ I mean that there is melody and rhythm here; a kind of method to the madness if you like. Take 'Go down, old Hannah' on the Fig. 5 album. It's a reworking of a very old song (not one of their old songs – we’re talking early 1900's here). It's simply beautiful, and unlike the equally delightful mind-blowing instrumental 'Amazing Grace' which follows it, Jackie O have kept the original lyrics, and performed it more or less straight. It breathes life into the novels of those great American writers like William Faulkner or John Steinbeck you read at college, “I got a letter from the Governor, what do you think he said,? He said he'd give me a pardon if I didn't drop dead.” They sure don't write 'em like that anymore.
Liberation also has its numerous delights, particularly 'Something On Your Mind' which reminds me of an old Mercury Rev record, and shows Jackie O at their most relaxed and introspective – (“You can make it without ever really trying”, they reveal). It's the catchiest song on both albums, and serves as a bridge between the long and subdued experiments on Fig. 5 and the more recognisable song structures of Liberation, even if these song structures are at the opposite end of virtually everything you are likely to hear on the radio these days.
A while ago some American magazine whose name escapes me once refereed to Jackie O Motherfucker as a band where it feels as though the conductor has walked out on the orchestra, leaving them to play aimlessly without following any direction. It's a good way as any to describe them, but this is not just a lot of musicians randomly playing their instruments hoping something will happen - there is a kind of elegance and structure to both records in this lavish box, and the music they offer is something to be appreciated and digested over a long period of time. Ten years on, they still feel as experimental, interesting, and worthwhile as ever, and this is a worthy addition to any music collection - bands as interesting and talented as Jackie O are few and far between.
Artists in this article: Jackie O Motherfucker
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