Ashley Reaks - Compassion Fatigue (1-8)

  by Lisa Torem

published: 15 / 7 / 2014

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Review

Visual artist/musician Ashley Reaks is one of the most innovative composer/arrangers around. In his previous recordings, such as last year's 'Power Failure' and 'Here’s To the Good Life and Melancholia', recorded two years earlier, he has explored everything from experimental to acoustic folk ballads, spoken word to pop. His love of language, be it dark, threatening or painfully tender, earmark his incredibly personal compositions, and on each album he seems to employ a different concept. On his new release 'Compassion Fatigue (1-8'), the Harrogate artist uses a set format: the first song is one minute long and written in the key of A, and each song that follows is a minute longer and in an alternate key. This structure gives Reaks the freedom to explore, and explore he does. With him, are musicians he has used previously: Ian Peak is back on saxophone, Mark Law and Dan Mizen share percussive duties, Nick Dunne plays some wild guitar and keys on ‘Wrong ‘Un’ and ‘Street Cleaning,’ two gritty, film-noir gems and Dave Kemp also plays sax and accordion. Leeds-based vocalist, Maria Jardardottir has appeared on a number of Reak’s albums. She has a spectaular ear and impressive range. Set against Reak’s gruff, yet sonorant pipes, she sounds like an earth-angel. The way the two trade off on verses and tempos is fascinating. Reaks enjoys characters and here there are a few – as he says, two songs are devoted to psychopaths. ‘Joyless Joy’ is a study of a woman who has a “face like the Berlin wall/Should have been a girless girl.” She “had a one night stand with a nonwhite man back in ‘73” – she, like many of Reaks' characters, seems to be lost, futureless and deserving of pity. But whether he chooses to write about lonely women or killers, which he also has done in the past, he is a master at the fleshing out of complex personas. Musically, the title song is like a fusion of Zappa and prog rock. ‘The World The Dead Have Made for Us’ features odd rhythms and that curious call and response between Jardardottir and Reaks. It is bursting with activity. Reaks' voice swerves against a myriad of bytes and , Jardardottir’s breathy vocals cross over way out percussion – this madness competes with out-there strumming on ‘Cold Body Pussycat’. ‘Wrong ‘Un’ begins with a djembe? A well-mannered violin seeps through the jungle beat. A steady chant grows into an aggressive rant. ‘Cot Death Grandmother’ features more dizzying beats and the sense of hustle and bustle in a crowded souk – this woman has strong opinions: ‘She’s anti-black, anti-white” – the energy is heightened with horns and then a fugue of even more furious horns fill ‘Street Cleaning.’ The last song, ‘Disconnected’ at eight minutes, as the structure dictates, has almost a Klezmer sound. Reaks magnifies emptiness and outsiderness with his symmetrical stanzas: "I am the femme fatale without a heart to break,” and “I am the debutante without a stitch to wear…” 'Compassion Fatigue (1-8)' is not an album to casually explore. It is, as Reaks states, experimental and he really means what he says. He explores polyrhythms, fuses grating and beautiful sonics and often whips up bizarre themes, which he peppers with vulgar street language. But if you’re up for soaring beyond the ordinary, Reaks takes you there.

Track Listing:-

1 Compassion Fatigue
2 The World the Dead Have Made for
3 Cold Body Pussycat
4 Wrong 'Un
5 Cot Death Grandmother
6 Street Cleaning
7 Joyless Joy
8 Disconnected

Band Links:-

http://www.ashleyreaks.com/
https://twitter.com/ashleyreaks
http://ashleyreaks.bandcamp.com/
https://www.facebook.com/ashleyreaksar
https://ashleyreaks.bigcartel.com
https://www.youtube.com/user/ash231266