Beatrice Antolini - A Due

  by Andrew Carver

published: 2 / 4 / 2009

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Jaunty piano, a spooky girlish voice and the boom boom of a kick drum beckon the listener into the first track of Beatrice Antolini’s ‘A Due’, setting the course for an album of offbeat cabaret pop. From there the album drifts into the resolutely un-funky ‘Funky show’, replete with urgent vocals, insistent drumming and a breakneck race to the end of the tune on top of a squawking trumpet. Then it’s on to a hazy, lazy song of the sort Hope Sandoval might have sung with Mazzy Star, though even Sandoval would probably have demanded to pick up the pace. It ends with some tinkling percussion and haphazard piano. What’s next? How about some sultry robot mambo on ‘A New Room for a Quite Life’, the spidery dulcimer instrumental ‘Modern Lover’ or the film noir croon of ‘Clear My Eyes’? One suspects the influence of David Cristiani of Italian psychedelic weirdos Jennifer Gentle, as it shares that band’s predilection for kooky tones and sudden shifts in tone and tempo, but apparently Antolini plays almost all the instruments, so perhaps he’s only to blame (or thanks) for giving her free reign. Many will find ‘A Due’ strange and it may be accused of a certain lack of focus, but if you’re the sort of person who thinks Eleni Mandell sounds too straight, or wished the Dresden Dolls would collaborate with Tom Waits, this may be the disc for you.

Track Listing:-

1 New Manner
2 Funky Show
3 Morbidalga
4 A New Room for a Quiet Life
5 Modern Lover
6 Clear My Eyes
7 Pop Goes to Saint Peter
8 Sugarise
9 Secret Cassette
10 Double J
11 Taiga

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