Search - Michael Karoli, Polly Estes :: Deluge (Reis)

Wow. What a nice surprise...

08/03/1999

(4 out of 5 stars)

"What with latter-day Can albums being the extremely mixed bags-o-tricks they are, I'd been passing copies of this for over a decade before I actually took the plunge and bought it as a cut-out. Polly Eltes had been lovely diddling herself on the cover of Roxy Music's "Country Life" album, but could she sing?... Apparently so. I put it on and... damn! Nothing like I would've expected from Karoli, nothing Krautrock about it, but all of Karoli's off-modal flibbertigibbetery channelled into a kind of baroque bounce-ponderosa/reggae/dub/funk/skronk stew, reminiscent most of all of the so many great singles Rough Trade was putting out circa 79-81: think Essential Logic, "Kitchen Tapes" Raincoats, all the early Scritti Politti stuff up through "Sweetest Girl," the Ubu of "Modern Dance" and especially "Dub Housing", with the densely layered percussives of late Swell Maps and a spicing of "Unbehagen"-era Nina Hagen Band. A treat. Wish they'd done more. This edition apparently includes lots of outtakes from the original vinyl edition, most featuring Can drummer Jaki Leibezeit on drums."

Favorite Can solo project

Allan MacInnis | Vancouver | 11/10/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

"A fine CD. If Philip Welsh's review is still posted, it is much more knowledgeable than I could be about the contents of the disc. His Ubu comparison is both apt and unavoidable, but there's much more textural and rhythmic afoot, as well... Anyhow, this is my favorite Can solo project (of the six or seven I've heard) and the first I'd recommend."

A Progression Forward

Scott McFarland | Manassas, VA United States | 01/07/2003

(4 out of 5 stars)

"More than any other member's solo project(s), this moves forward from where the band was when they split up, and shows where they might have gone to. It is the most interesting and successful such project along with Czukay's early solo work. It posits an obvious line of arguement that Michael had a lot to do with latter-day Can.The music is African/Carribean inflected, with deep groove running through it, and more than a hint of abstraction (the kind of abstract, art-for-art's sake vibe that Can had been moving towards and that acolytes like Public Image Ltd. tapped into). It is simultaneously pleasant in tone, and disturbingly cold in nature."