- Music
- 11 Aug 03
Along with the likes of Jimmy Behan, Joan Of Arse and Daemien Frost, Estel are the much undervalued and underexposed anti-christs to the Frames, Mundy and Damien Rice’s hand-wringing preachings.
Along with the likes of Jimmy Behan, Joan Of Arse and Daemien Frost, Estel are the much undervalued and underexposed anti-christs to the Frames, Mundy and Damien Rice’s hand-wringing preachings. This largely instrumental album, which is cut from the same cloth as the Redneck Manifesto and Godspeed You Black Emperor, is infused with a certain darkness, yet is stripped down, unpretentious, a beacon of lo-fi loveliness.
It draws from an array of influences, uses various instruments to wondrous and unusual effect, and even the song titles display a gloriously unorthodox approach – where ‘Bang, Bang No More Martini’, ‘King Of Casual Vomit’, and ‘Free Cyanide For The Rockstar Elite’ originated from simply boggles the mind.
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Their manifesto is, gladly, not to reach out to a mass audience willing to swallow any old record, but to address those who welcome a dash of Trans Am, Slits and Sonic Youth in their music. Needless to say, it’s a small, but perfectly formed audience, and they’ve been well rewarded.