Click opera - In which I applaud The Chap

May 2008


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	Mon, May. 5th, 2008 09:34 am

In which I applaud The Chap

There's this arty London band called The Chap, see. Four of them, a German called Johannes Van Weizsacker, a Greek called Panos who plays keyboards, a girl called Claire and a bloke called Keith. They live in Manor House and they're actually very good, in a Wire and XTC and Talking Heads and Krautrock way. There might even be a touch of Renaldo and the Loaf in their sound. And if you read New York magazine, "the music has identity problems in the best way, sounding like Momus mixed with Morricone".

That comparison might just be related to the title of the lead track from their new album Mega Breakfast. It's called "Carlos Walter Wendy Stanley". It's just some first names, don't get excited. I'm not going to talk about the associations you personally bring to the title. I can't. But you can hear the song on the Pitchfork site, anyway.

It's amazing to me that I hadn't heard of this band until now. And it's amazing to me that they sound so English despite being so European. And I like the poised, proggy, measured, middle class way they sing. And the pointilliste, subtle way they arrange their pieces. There's a lightness of touch there.

They've been around for about five years; here's an older track, I Got Flattened by a Pig Farmer. Which is a funny title. This is them performing a song called Woop Woop live. This is where I really started to get interested:

Here's The Chap's discography, and it's important to note that their sleeves are well designed. Here's a rather extraordinary epic called BITSS!!!:

I like to listen to good music when I'm recording, music that gives me a sense of new formal possibilities, and The Chap make that kind of stuff. Since you asked, I'm right in the middle of recording the Joemus album, there's about six tracks so far, and the latest is called The Jah Wise Hammer of the Babylon King. Anyway, I'll leave you with The Chap's tidily, daintily deranged song Auto Where To:

eptified

H. Duck

	Mon, May. 5th, 2008 08:19 am (UTC)

Obvious influence here - they sampled the "sproing" on carlos walter wendy from the original version of Pierrot Lunaire, didn't they

I feel stupid for not having heard of them.

imomus

	Mon, May. 5th, 2008 08:37 am (UTC)

they sampled the "sproing" on carlos walter wendy from the original version of Pierrot Lunaire, didn't they

Oh, I think that's just a standard instrument. A 12-bore, 2-inch attenuated Groin Sprong, if I'm not mistaken. You can buy them up and down the Malabar Coast.

(Anonymous)

	Mon, May. 5th, 2008 01:15 pm (UTC)

sproing

ruler on a table. thankyouverymuch.

eptified

H. Duck

	Mon, May. 5th, 2008 06:06 pm (UTC)

Re: sproing

I think you'll find it's the noise you get if you rub a chinchilla the wrong way

lecabinet

le cabinet des lettrés

	Mon, May. 5th, 2008 08:24 am (UTC)

Auto Where To is an excellent song, so excellent that it forced me to walk down the middle of the road and get honked at by irate taxi drivers. What did they think, that I was going to run in front of them? Stupid taxi drivers.

(Anonymous)

	Mon, May. 5th, 2008 08:40 am (UTC)

They sound good, but they also sound pretty 1981. Do they pass the necroretro test?

imomus

	Mon, May. 5th, 2008 08:46 am (UTC)

Thing is, there are as many possible 1981s glistening up there as stars in the sky. They picked a good one.

(Anonymous)

	Mon, May. 5th, 2008 09:03 am (UTC)

And Vampire Weekend picked a bad one?

imomus

	Mon, May. 5th, 2008 09:32 am (UTC)

There's really no dogmatic, programmatic way of defining taste. And I say that dogmatically and programmatically.

rhodri

Rhodri Marsden

	Mon, May. 5th, 2008 11:54 am (UTC)

Indeed. They don't sound like, for example, Anti-Pasti.

Terrific find, imomus, thank you.

god_jr

D-L Alvarez

	Mon, May. 5th, 2008 10:27 am (UTC)

it's true, which each new song i listen to the list of "influences" grows and grows. nice to hear people who have decided *play* is the most important thing. i'm starting to grow tired of the super focus tread of DEFINING YOURSELF: this idea that you have between 30 seconds and five minutes to layout your program (found in art, music, blogs, etc.) and that you shouldn't veer off the road of that program. this band is messy in the best way, and they don't let their last accomplishment direct their next. more power to them, then.

silkytooth.blogspot.com
silkytooth.blogspot.com

	Mon, May. 5th, 2008 11:50 am (UTC)

chaps

i know the chap(s)! i sort of work with them (julie tippex, our booking agent / my employer is keith's fiancee, marie-pierre - keith also works with them)
super people!

http://claimid.com/saski
http://claimid.com/saski

	Mon, May. 5th, 2008 01:22 pm (UTC)

Their -beautiful- graphic designer was the art director of Wire Magazine for several years
http://www.non-format.com/

imomus

	Mon, May. 5th, 2008 02:22 pm (UTC)

That's funny, he must have been replaced in that job by my beautiful graphic designer!

electricwitch

La favola mia

	Mon, May. 5th, 2008 04:21 pm (UTC)

It's rather fail that they named themselves after the magazine, while they don't look like they read The Chap at all.

I also keep misreading it as The Clap.

imomus

	Mon, May. 5th, 2008 04:44 pm (UTC)

Hey, you'd probably like my new song, it sounds remarkably like Marc Bolan. There's a line where I sing about one "Slithey Tove" exactly the way Marc would sing about Telegram Sam or Jungle-Faced Jake. It's like his ghost rose up in me and made me do it.

count_vronsky

	Tue, May. 6th, 2008 02:14 am (UTC)

Maybe that was him in the shower drain? Same thing happened to me once.

electricwitch

La favola mia

	Tue, May. 6th, 2008 04:45 pm (UTC)

the salesman who sold himself

Aw, I'm sorry you were molested by Astral Marc. But he does nice things sometimes.

lol you know Marc wouldn't be clever enough to use Carroll phrases in his songs though, bless him.

microworlds

Michelleangelo