Artist: cardboard amandA
Label: Liar Leaver Records
Release: 2006
Rating: 4.2/5
cardboard amandA are undoubtedly something special. Just take one look at their album cover and you can tell this is going to be something completely crazy and out of the ordinary. And the cover doesn’t lie! Tucked inside the nicely designed digipak is music so mad, schizophrenic and unpredictable that even fans of experimental music might get put off, never mind a seasoned listener. In the end, though, you find that a bit of effort pays off and the album really is something special. It’s definitely not for the faint of heart, or for people who like nice, tidy music by the rules, with the right melodies in all the right places.
Cardboard amandA is a kind of concept album that weaves together the stories of the scientist Dr. Amanda Mueller and her patient Cecil Grungard, who had to have his vocal cords removed. Grungard got a device that let him communicate (invented by Dr. Muelller herself, who also implanted it). So the story on the album is told by Grungard in his robotic voice (think Stephen Hawking), but in reality it’s Christof Tuninsky, who probably used some kind of effect.
The music on the album has absolutely no rhythm to speak of. Fans of classic rock that drives you along, with typical riffs and drums, will write this album off right from the start. Plenty of people would say there are no melodies on the record at all, but if you give it more attention you’ll see that the melodies are there. They’re just either hidden so deep under various effects that you don’t notice them, or so unusual that many people feel like they shouldn’t even count as melodies, or the arrangements are so complex and multi-part that it’s hard to pick out a single melody. Many will miss a drummer on this album. Personally I don’t see any pressing need for one, especially not in a project like this, where the rhythm and time signature are constantly changing, and besides, all three members did a good job on percussion.
The lineup consists of three members, all multi-instrumentalists. The band’s leader is Francois Camille, who is responsible for most of the songs. He plays all his instruments with great confidence, though he often hands the lead role over to the other two members. I was most impressed by his playing on the various string instruments, and I’d single out his fast pizzicato on “One Potato” (originally a children’s rhyme, heavily reworked here). The role of Mr. Tuninsky is especially prominent, and his distinctive vocal style could put some listeners off. As I’ve already read in some reviews, Mr. Tuninsky sings as if he had no vocal cords and was speaking through a device. It’s also quite possible the effect was created on purpose, since Tuninsky speaks with the voice of the character on the cover, who has a pair of lips on his throat, too. Another quirk is that Tuninsky always sings just one note (sometimes the whole thing sounds like a didgeridoo), which can get monotonous. Occasionally his style shifts a little, but it’s never plain singing, and there are always effects in play. His voice undoubtedly takes some getting used to, but personally it didn’t bother me much. Tuninsky also plays piano and clarinet and, like the other two members, chips in on percussion to make up for the missing drummer. Dee Harris likewise contributes some interesting parts on guitar, banjo and percussion, and now and then picks up the harmonica.
Maybe the band’s biggest flaw is that they’re sometimes experimental just because they can be. It wouldn’t hurt if they held back now and then and spent more time on more detailed arrangements and song structure.Then again, similar criticism could be aimed at Frank Zappa, who, much like cardboard amandA, had a habit of overdoing it in his vague Musique Concrete. Still, I’d rather see a band be too experimental than not experimental enough, rehashing ideas that have already been chewed over a thousand times. You certainly can’t accuse cardboard amandA of that. An album so unusual, offbeat, weird and ugly that it comes all the way around to being beautiful.
Lineup
François Louis Camille – violin, cello, bass, lute, banjo, percussion and more
Dee Harris – Indian slide guitar, banjo, harmonica, djembe, percussion and more
Christof Christofovich Tuninsky – vocals, clarinet, piano, kalimba, percussion and more
Production
Gyorgy Caminovic
Tracklist
1. Gaspard De La Fruit (2:38)
2. Detoxicus Itinerary (9:38)
3. Pretty Farm Animals One (0:54)
4. Cerebral Intestinoidal Transdection Process (0:39)
5. Pagoda Fey (1:14)
6. Picture Show (2:39)
7. Grungard’s Dream (0:16)
8. Fever Box (2:14)
9. Garden of the Sanitational Sanctorum (1:50)
10. Mumper (0:54)
11. Top of the World (0:14)
12. Satan Builds a Carousel (3:29)
13. Chair in the Air (2:10)
14. Pretty Farm Animals Two (0:19)
15. Blood From the Twinkle Bird (0:38)
16. Kwei-kwei-kwei (1:54)
17. Le Corbusier (2:00)
18. The Homeless King of Ikaluktutlak (1:46)
19. Pandora’s Box (4:01)
20. Pretty Farm Animals Three (0:46)
21. One Potato (8:52)
22) Globus and the Magnificent Magnetic Reconnection (6:09)
