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The new album of Andrew Liles with Tony Wakeford of Sol Invictus fuses surreal electronics & sinister acoustic beauty, and features a new interpretation of a classic track by Wakeford & Stapleton of Nurse with Wound.
'A Sandwich Short' continues the journey from where the previous album, 'Cups in Cupboard' finished. The 14 tracks cover a strange and contorted musical landscape. With an ample amount of crows, magpies and deformed city dwellers the album combines the very best of Andrew Liles' twisted and incomprehensible 'vision' with Tony Wakeford's dark sensibilities.
'A Sandwich Short' features a re-invented version of 'Lucifer Before Sunrise' which originally appeared some 14 years ago on the excellent 'Revenge of the Selfish Shellfish' by Tony Wakeford and Steven Stapleton.
'A Sandwich Short' also features guest appearances from the charismatic and indispensable John Murphy and Helen and Alice Potter (daughters of the infamous Colin).
The CD is limited to 1000 copies
Strange Fortune listener reviews are a free space to share your impressions of the music.
Michael J. Salo says on 8 Nov 2006
One of my favorite albums of '05 was the first Tony Wakeford & Andrew Liles collaboration as The Wardrobe titled _Cups in Cupboard_, which I felt to be an evocative blend of folk-noir acoustics and strange electronic accompaniment. That one was a tiny edition of 500, and a number of them were lost en route across the Atlantic so it's even less. A real rarity if you have one.
_Cups_ remains deleted but now we are presented a new album from this curious duo.
This yankee can be a little slow to keep up with those zany Brits and their vast arsenal of witty expressions, so the first task at hand was to look up the title, _A Sandwich Short_. OK, this expression means "lacking in intelligence."
The absurd choice of a title carries on something of a tradition for Wakeford's most avant garde releases, going back to _Revenge of the Selfish Shellfish_ with Steven Stapleton (designed to be a "totally stupid" project, according to Stapleton in _England's Hidden Reverse_).
The silly spirit is further represented by the giant sandwich appearing on the back cover art – probably not a romantic enough image for say, a Sol Invictus album.
Despite the lighthearted side to the proceedings there's always been much beauty to be found in Wakeford's experimental efforts, and this album begins with a piano led piece that continues in the vein of the dark romantic, filmic qualities of _Cups_.
From there, _Sandwich_ starts getting weirder and more sinister. Where _Cups_ maintained a relatively consistent vibe, _Sandwich_ is better described as being made up of many different parts, each track having its own odd character. The acoustic instrumentation and electronic sounds change with every track, dabbling in everything from accordian to didgeridoo.
Despite the varied musical approach there's a particular atmosphere of menace that stays through this album. There are a number of dramatic peaks in the music, contrasting with the consistently mellow _Cups_.
The foremost peak of the album is surely the remake of "Lucifer Before Sunrise," originally by Wakeford & Stapleton. It's years since I heard the original, I don't recall exactly what it sounded like, but here it is just the most delightfully Satanic track, its misanthropic lyrics made specially potent by being delivered by the sweet young lasses, Helen & Alice Potter. A brilliant idea.
It's hard to say for certain but my impression is the composition of this album is heavy on the Andrew Liles influence, where the previous release feels more like it's led by Wakeford and accompanied by Liles.
In summary, _Sandwich_ ranks as perhaps the weirdest album Tony Wakeford has ever released, and it even comes out on the weird side for Andrew Liles.
Everyone who enjoyed _Cups in Cupboard_ should surely pick this up to hear where they've taken the project next. Everybody else who enjoys their folk noir with a touch of sonic madness should also have a listen, along with anyone who happens to like their surreal electronics with a dash of real acoustics and some good old Satanism thrown in for fun.
Narsheptha says on 24 Feb 2007
BRILLIANT. Out of the three releases that I’ve heard from the collaboration of Liles and Wakeford, “A Sandwich Short” is by far my favorite. Yes, I’ll admit it’s weird. It’s that oddity that makes it so appealing, I think. When I started exploring post-industrial, I thought it was all weird. It was totally over my head. “A Sandwich Short” would have once set my skin crawling and my feet running to change the record at all costs, but it’s truly something sublime that at least deserves a listen.
The tracks conjure up thoughts of drug addled sailors trying to use accordians; sitting in sleazy, dimly-lit bars while the light above the loo flickers off and on; rooms full of people staring with derision ready to spring forth from their fanged mouths; the clacking of subway cars in dimly lit underground tunnels; serial killer profiling; tweaked out, drugged-up, hazy songs about Valium; X-Files like creepy shite; sage advice about the British; and lastly, funeral dirges. You just don't get much more sinister than these.
“Lucifer Before Sunrise” is a reworking of an older Tony Wakeford version of the song, which I’ve (sadly) never heard. This track is INCREDIBLE. Over a soundbed of crackling fire, two little girls recite poetry about the war in heaven and the fall of Lucifer. Through manipulation, their voices and that of Tony Wakeford (he gets to sing!) are warped into something dreadful and beautiful. It’s truly a headphone masterpiece.
There were a few tracks on the album that, while brilliantly constructed soundscapes, I couldn't appreciate as much. But, literally, "a few tracks" means two.
“Yesterday was Years Ago” is truly touched by Tony Wakeford. It’s absolutely unmistakable and the truest to form on this album. The guitar work and drum line wouldn’t be out of place on a Sol Invictus album. However, at the end of the track, there’s a nice degradation that reminds you that this is NOT a Sol Invictus album at all.
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