Jarvis Cocker
'Further Complications'
CD £10.99
2xLP £14.99

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Jarvis Cocker recently mused that if the voices suggesting or pronouncing the imminent death of the music industry are to be believed, then music may soon revert to an art form free from any commercial obligations. To explore this idea Jarvis and his band installed themselves in a Parisian art gallery for five days and exhibited themselves playing music under many different guises; as an accompaniment to an yoga class, as a treat for local school kids, as a facility for local musicians to drop in and improvise with and many more, full footage of which can be viewed here.

Through performing music for such an array of purposes Jarvis has raised the question of what is music? A point that those pronouncing its death should be considering. To help spark this re evaluation ‘Further Complications.” is to be stocked by a number of UK art galleries in a bid to recontextualise the album and make the point that this item is very different to the others on the shelves of Tesco. Via Rough Trade

About the Album:
pulp hero jarvis cocker releases second solo collection 'further complications' on rough trade. it was produced by steve albini. the two met while the former pulp frontman was in chicago for last year's pitchfork music festival; jarvis paid a visit to albini's electrical audio studio to put some new songs through their paces. the experience (and the price: 'very cheap') was perfect, and thus a partnership was born. the title track howls albini immediately, with a crookedly ascending fuzz riff pounded into hard angles by a driving, almost tribal, backbeat. the hidden influence of stevie wonder shines through like sleazy dance funk until a wide-open breakdown drives the tune home. 'angela' is a nice little piece of freakbeat sweetmeat and the first hook to get lodged into the frontal lobe, for better or worse. the instrumental 'pilchard' starts out like sinister sci-fi surf with an electropulse before settling in to something a little brighter, a little more psychedelic; jarvis hisses, pops and 'oooohhs' in a way that would make marc bolan proud. the record really begins to coalesce around the six-minute soulburner 'leftovers' though, equally the most memorable and most sentimental cut on the whole album.