John Cale - 'Hobosapiens' (EMI)
4/5
By: Thomas Hannan
When the most fashionable thing you could possibly do is to sound like The Velvet Underground, it should come as little surprise that the current work of founder member and all-round musical legend John Cale, now in his sixtieth year, sounds like anything but. Evidently, a career that started with such daring innovation is not about to retrace its steps now.
Also in a stubborn, middle-finger waving unwillingness to adhere to current, retro-aficionado trends, Cale has developed a love of modern recording techniques such as Pro-Tools and other such computer trickery, whilst most of his admirers are sitting in sheds fiddling with reel-to-reel equipment, attempting in vain to convince themselves that traditional analogue recording really is the only way to go. They have a point, but it's difficult to see how 'Hobosapiens', with its ever-so intricate beat-structures and layered complexity could have been made any other way... Forward-thinking doesn't come close.
With the help of Lemon Jelly's Nick Franglen on masterful production-duties, what's been conjured from the electronic cauldron of John Cale's hard-drive is a record that recalls Joe Strummer, Beck, Blur's 'Think Tank' and endless Halloween nights. With meticulous attention paid to the detail of classic song-construction and rhythmic-structure, it would be very easy for the actual tunes on 'Hobosapiens' to get lost amidst the quagmire of the other ingredients. 'Things', the most accessible of the dozen compositions here, assures you that this doesn't happen. Its effortless, lilting melody is the finest example of the range of songwriting skill on display, one that stretches from the comforting, to ominous, through to the downright bizarre.
Confusing but enthralling paeans to 'Magritte' and 'Archimedes' provide other highlights, each unfathomable in their purpose, yet addictive in their delivery. Perhaps it's the fresh recording-form that means these songs are continual joys rather than just passing trivialities, but whatever, there is something about 'Hobosapiens' that's ever so slightly hypnotic; it never frightens with rage or attacks with angst (the calculated, pulsing rock of 'Twilight Zone' coming closest), always remaining calm even at its most unsettling moments ('Caravan', for example, recalling the eerie nature of 'E Is Missing' from the preceding '5 Tracks' EP). Somehow however, it retains an ability to be portentously dark at all times... OK, so the aforementioned slightly middle-of-the-road shuffle of 'Things' does provide some light relief, but even that's primarily about death and is treated to a reworking of unconventional (if unnecessary) proportions towards the end of proceedings.
But still, Cale's impassioned but soothing Welsh croon acts as a comforting hand to hold whilst walking through the record's shadowy corridors (the darkest being the ill-omened piano strains of a closing 'Over Her Head'). And, as grateful as we are for this friendly guide through a captivating record, John Cale's career in general has already set other musicians a fine enough blueprint on which to mould their own work.
Undoubtedly, the world's coolest sixty-year-old isn't looking back, not even this far down the line - remaining as unafraid of experimenting with pastures new as we are continually enthralled by the fruits of his labour.
Artists in this article: John Cale
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