Artist: The Legendary Pink Dots
Title: Chemical Playschool 15
Genre: Avant-Garde / Electronica
Release Date: 13th December 2012
Label: Rustblade
Album Review
“Legendary” is a word that carries a lot of weight and big implications, although these days it’s overused and often misapplied. For a band to refer to themselves as legendary is risky, being either presumptuous or plain misguided. In a sense, it’s become something of a self-fulfilling prophecy where THE LEGENDARY PINK DOTS (TLPD) are concerned. Granted, they may not be a household name, but since their inception in 1980, they’ve released more than 40 albums, and accumulated a devout global fan base in the process. One of the reasons they’ve become legends in their own lifetime is their unstinting resistance to conformity. Just check the list of genres on the band’s Wikipedia entry of you need to get a sense of their genre-defying stylistic eclecticism.
In keeping with their shunning of any kind of commercial considerations, ‘Chemical Playschool 15’, released on CD and as a limited box set with a bonus DVD, sticker, mushroom pendant (it’s not clear if you can smoke it or not) and a purple bag, contains five lengthy tracks that head off on myriad trajectories. ‘Immaculate Conception’ begins eerily, sparsely, with spacey atmospherics, backwards sounds and reverb vocals over a Kraftwerkian synth bass that remains in the background. Strange and jarring incidentals stab in and out of the mix, never allowing the listener to orient themselves fully or comfortably in the song’s unstable framework. There’s a woozy, hallucinogenic quality to it as it stretches out over nine minutes.
It is but a brief introduction, however, as the dissonant, queasy electro bubbles of ‘Sparks Fly / Museum’ drift around a dark and surreal narrative for a full 19 minutes. Half spoken, half sung, completely deranged, the lyrics are nightmarish both in content and their strangely detached delivery. It’s not so much a song as a musical journey as washes of ambience, manic laughter and fluttering tones swell and bleed into the 3-part track ‘The Opium Den’. There’s a hint of Syd Barrett type folk here, with a sparse acoustic guitar pluck and piano note hangs in the air, but it slowly twists and fades and emerges as something else entirely. It’s impossible to really get a grip on any of the songs, their structures and sentiments as transient and intangible as steam. This is, of course, a large part of the album’s – and the band’s – appeal.
All tribal percussive hell breaks loose on ‘Ranting and Raving’ a grating slab of ominous industrial Electronica reminiscent of ‘Mummy and Daddy’ era Whitehouse. The album is bookended by ‘Immaculate Conclusion’, a counterpart and counterpoint to the first piece. The shortest track on the album, it’s a weird psychedelic swirl that leaves the listener suitably dazed. ‘Chemical Playschool 15’ is a mind-bending, multi-sensory and disorientating experience. Little short of awesome, and most definitely the stuff of legends.
Tracklist
01. Immaculate Conception
02. Sparks Fly / Museum
03. The Opium Den Parts 1 -3
04. Ranting and Raving
05. Immaculate Conclusion
Line-up
Phil Knight – Keyboards, soundscapes, electronics devices, gadgets, technology.
Erik Drost – A thunder of stringed things including acoustic, electric, bass and Hawaiian guitars
Raymond Steeg – Mixing and engineering mastah
Edward Ka-Spel – Voice, keyboards, devices, gadgets, keyboards, interference, the BBC World Service, and premonitions.
Website
http://www.legendarypinkdots.org/
Cover Picture
Rating
Music: 8.5
Sound: 9.5
Extras: limited box set with a bonus DVD, sticker, mushroom pendant and a purple bag
Total: 9 /10
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