Skill 7 Stamina 12 - Museum Of Surfaces

  by Jon Rogers

published: 10 / 4 / 2004

---

Review

This new 12" from this East London quartet proudly boasts its "ART" credentials in an unashamed fashion -with big, gaudy neon letters like some installation done by 'glamour' model Jordan in an attempt to copy Tracy Emin. While there's certainly nothing wrong with being unashamedly arty the stupidly monikered Skill 7 Stamina 12 are the irritating 'Aren't we so clever' school of arty that has pretentious undergraduates sneering at the lumpen proletariat about how they just don't understand their work of art. 'Robotics with Strings' is just too self-consciously clever-clever to be of any great interest. Certainly they've clearly been listening to some worthwhile albums taken mostly from post-punk experimenters A Certain Ratio and Pil, the angular rhythms of Can and a hefty dollop of left-field funk a la Gang of Four - and not to mention that the Dutch singer Maaike Schoorel sounds just like Alison Statton without the charm. Unfortunately, the entire album is completely forgettable, the whole mass just swirls around pointlessly, each track largely the same as the one before.

Track Listing:-

1 Museum of Surfaces
2 T*B*E*A*K
3 Sofa