Black Carrot - Milking the Scarabs For Dough

  by Maarten Schiethart

published: 30 / 5 / 2010

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Review

Quintessentially English as they say, Black Carrot´s birthplace in Market Harborough is amidst the cornfields of Leicestershire, East England. Yet they have moved from jazzy freeform to coherent composition over the course of just a few years. A transition that might have taken a lot longer under different circumstances but in the case of Black Carrot has happened quickly. Swapping new wave grooves in return for cabaretesque melody lines, Black Carrot´s 2008 second album,'Drink the Black Forest', turned out a major improvement over their debut, 'Kluk', from 2003. Singer Oliver Betts now appears much more confident, crooning and crawling over words in a fashion that recall Père Ubu´s David Thomas. Or, when in plaintative fashion, the Nightingales' Robert Lloyd but either way the range of Betts' vocals is quite remarkable. At one stage, on 'Magnets', he mentions that Britain is run by little Hitlers, which might explain the band's move towards Kurt Weill vaudeville music, simply as a political stance. Though this would not do much justice to the present shape and form of Black Carrot. Funky soul music has got underneath the band's skin, and, melodically inflicted, Black Carrot have followed route. Musically, Black Carrot put on offer the best they've had so far. Apart from being it a political statement, which is perhaps outdated by the outcome from the Conservative and LibDem coalition presently at rule, it has hidden truths to be remembered in forthcoming elections and a wealth of music to explore beneath it. 1970s funk dominates, but this being a Black Carrot album it encaptures a plethora of styles and paves the way for many genres of music. As on their second album Black Carrot demonstrate a very fine sense of pop music history. I've had the album for a few days only but it has not left the player and I'm still finding new aspects. Simply wonderful.

Track Listing:-

1 No-One Sings Songs for Guilty Men
2 Cardboard Soup
3 The One That Got Away
4 Onomatopoeia
5 The Hush Hour
6 The Detonation Tonight Will Be S-Ray-20
7 Interlude From "Milking Scarabs for Dough"
8 Sleep
9 Magnets
10 Blackmail
11 The Queen of Protest
12 The Top of the Hill

Label Links:-

http://www.tinangelrecords.co.uk/
http://tinangelrecords.tumblr.com/
http://tinangelrecords.bandcamp.com/
https://www.facebook.com/tinangelrecor
https://twitter.com/tinangelrecords
https://www.youtube.com/user/tinangelr