Apparently – I’ve been doing my background reading – Anneke Kampman doesn’t like being compared to Bjork.
Some might say there’s an obvious solution to this problem.
But it does seem to these ears that this four-track EP owes even more than previous efforts to the Icelanic pop pixie, vocally at any rate.
To be fair, while La Gudmundsdottir does flirt with electronica (as well as everything from swing to disco) so do plenty other electropop duos. So if we can put the vocals aside – maybe we can use Kate Bush as our marker? – ‘The Next Day’ is a decent enough tune, all electronic twiddles not completely dominating everything around it.
Also in the case for the defence, while cohort James Scott is responsible for much of the production here, Ms Kampman doesn’t solely provide voice, the duo’s work very much a team effort where their own persona tastes come together to fuse elements of hip-hop and electronica and musique concrete.
‘Puskas’ – the only connection to the Hungarian footballing legend the title – is jumpy and not a little odd, with an almost oriental feel, while ‘HRTR1A’ is just space noises for the first 3 minutes before wobbling its way into some sort of tune which could have been the best tune on here if actually developed. However, there’s one thing you can say about CAS – the don’t do things the easy way.
- Ministry of De-fence - 6 November 2014
- Conquering Animal Sound - 5 November 2014
- The Bucky Rage - 4 November 2014