Gry with FM Einheit and his Orchestra - Ghost
Gry with FM Einheit and his Orchestra - Ghost
Album: Public Recording (2000)
Danish vocalist Gry Bagøien and former Einstürzende Neubauten member FM Einheit co-wrote the bulk of these dozen songs and recorded them along with an assortment of guests this past February at Munich's Marstall Media Lab. The duo and friends were part of the Invisible Records "Lowest of the Low" North American tour in 1998. The live set I saw seemed to be heavily improvised and experimental jams but this cd is a variety of 3-5 minute electro-organic pop songs. Gry's vocals (most in English) remind me a great deal of Canadian pop songstress Esthero, only with a Danish flavor. Einheit handles programming, piano and synths, 'beat' and various effects. A full band line-up is assembled for each track from the impressive guest list: Alexander Hacke (also of Neubauten) and his wife Meret Becker, Pan Sonic, Funkstörung, Zaki 'the human beatbox' Hyrland, Chrislo Haas (DAF), DJ Fetisch of Terranova and several others. The music is somewhat surprising as it's pretty mellow, unobtrusive and radio friendly ... pleasant enough but half of the songs don't leave much of a lasting impression. Four in particular do. "Rocket" features bombastic horn and percussion arrangements and an amusing Cab Calloway styled call and response chorus. "Princess Crocodile" is irresistibly fun with a ragtime sample loop accentuated with drum 'n bass fills. Lee Hazlewood's "Summer Wine" (as popularized by Nancy Sinatra) is covered well with Gry and Alexander Hacke trading off vocals. "Ghost" is slow and sexy, much like Portishead, with brushed snare, singing saw, cello, a bit of beat box and nasally vocals. "Public Recording" suffers from a mismatch of creative and interesting tracks versus bland and forgetful ones. It's just too tempting to skip around ...