Search - Caretaker :: Well All Go Riding On A Rainbow

"re-processed 1930s ballroom music" 4.5 stars

Kirby | 09/15/2008

(4 out of 5 stars)

"The re-processing I feel adds an echoed ambience, especially on the horn instruments (trombone, oboe, sax, et al) of the sampled pieces, giving it a spacey, slow-paced, melancholic feel, and it gives the impression of what a haunted ballroom occupied by ghosts stuck in a time warp would sound like if you were listening in from another room (especially on 'Stardust' - consisting of an American lounge-singer reflectively singing in the past-tense about the memories of a lost love); you probably wouldn't be in high spirits.



Listening to the entire album will make you feel somewhat unsettled, and perhaps even amplify in the listener a sense of creepy loneliness - the way you felt when the Cheshire Cat left Alice alone to fend for herself in the forests of Wonderland and you could still hear his fading, echoed singing until it gradually fell silent and dark. Certainly not music for dancing to or for playing to friends in the car, it certainly leaves a lasting impression on the listener; a solemn regard for the music of yesteryear. This is the kind of CD you would listen to if you were watching Stanley Kubrick's film The Shining (it's by "The Caretaker", afterall!)."