CD Description
Three Part Species is the seventh album from ex-Japan member Mick Karn and is his attempt to blend elements of electronica, hiphop, jazz, world music and pop. Highlights include the Harold Budd-like piano/ambience of Floating Home and Chocolate was a Boy or the convincing Middle Eastern drawl of Pitta Pop . One of the finest moments is saved until last an ebow -led largely ambient piece entitled Regretted deep and moving, it reminds me of Michael Nyman in many ways, the composition giving way to half-heard vocals and haunting oboe. The Album is lush and rich, relaxed and confident. Opening track Of & About delivers haunting swirls over a slow percussion that gets trancier as it goes along, backed by a steady beat that holds everything together in a warm embrace. This is followed by Twitchy Hand Mover, one of the dancier tracks, and like the other gems you'll find here, it's mostly instrumental. The remaining eight vary from repetitive beats and resonating bass to the deep, sinking down under woodwinds of I'll Be Here Dreaming. There's haunting strings and piano melodies on tracks such as Chocolate Was a Boy and economically rationed vocals throughout the album, used sparingly and to great effect. Female whispers echo in and out of All You Have, while a male counterpart booms out with gravelly horror narration on The Wrong Truth, by far the album's best track. With its paranoid, sinking and trancy feel and incongruous cymbals, it comes across like an imagined score to a gloriously shot film noir, dubbed into a language you don't quite understand but like to look at nonetheless. Beautiful.
