Munly and the Lupercalians - Petr and the Wulf

by Maarten Schiethart

published: 14 / 11 / 2010

Munly and the Lupercalians - Petr and the Wulf

Label: Alternative Tentacles
Format: CD

Oddball reworking of the 1936 orchestral children's story by Slim Cessna's Auto Club front man Munly and his side project, the Lupercalians

Review

An oddball from Denver City, Munly is also a keen innovator. Melting gothic folkpunk and fingerpickin' acoustics, Munly and his Lupercalians provide a nice shamrock bonanza. This upgrading of the Prokofiev's children's story is surprising with its plentiful twists. The lyrics are included in very small lettering in the CD booklet, so I suggest you buy the LP and do not strain your eyes too much. The main themes are power and greed. The first dramatic highlight is the rolling 'Grandfather'. Here theatre meets a strumming of snares. It seems as if the original (mainly brass) instrumentation of 1936 was only partly used on Munly's album. Gradually, the orchestration gets more complex with some folky rap music in the epilogue by the Wolf himself. By then, the album has turned into opera. 'Petr & The Wulf' features great ideas. Alas Munly's sometimes expressionless vocals and his sometimes overemphasizing cries lacks articulation. The singer gets beaten by his band as the Lupercalians are in excellent form.