Album Reviews

Album Review: Pascal Comelade – The No Dancing (Because Music)

By | Published on Monday 10 November 2008

Pascal Comelade

After 33 years making music, and with over 40 albums and numerous film scores to his name, Pascal Comelade is not quite the revered name his experience perhaps merits. Outisde his home of Catalonia, don’t expect many to perk up when you talk of his Reinhardt-influenced picking or his passion for the most playful of sounds. Give them a copy of ‘The No Dancing’ though, and they’d be hard pushed not to form some strong opinion of the man. For this pleasingly cohesive compilation of Comelade’s best work from the last 14 years shows a man of undeniable imagination, even if it’s not a creativity for all. Like many a five-year-old before him, Comelade has turned to toys in order to embellish that playfulness that runs throughout his work. A stripped down version of The Kink’s ‘Sunny Afternoon’ becomes its own with its plastic piano simplicity. There’s a killer clown eeriness to it, especially when followed by such a deep, dark beauty as PJ Harvey collaboration, ‘Love Too Soon’. The sweet glockenspiel does take some edge off the pained lyrics however, and comes in handy on more than one other occasion. It’s these covers and collaborations that see the album’s strongest moments, with Robert Wyatt and Jean-Herve Peron from Faust also showing up to impassioned effect, leaving some questions over Comelade’s own song-writing ability. His creative spark is undeniable though, and someday he may belong to more than Catalonia. TM

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