Angelo Spencer
Angelo Spencer et Les Hauts Sommets
Rating: 3.5/5.0
Label: K Records
French-born one man band Angelo Spencer's debut album, Angelo Spencer et Les Hauts Sommets, is an exercise in cluttered brevity. Clocking in at just barely over 30 minutes in 10 tracks, it's difficult to describe without typing something that would take longer to read than it does to listen to the entire thing. Suffice it to say that it is instrumental, dominated by reverbed guitar and ultimately, fascinating.
Opening with "Now!," a stridently titled starter if there ever was one, Spencer experiments with a nearly tropical bassline and occasional horn, but he leads the melody and song with a heavily distorted, humming guitar. It's a fine introduction to an album that takes more than a few turns, but only the guitar remains a constant. On the next track, "Northwest," what begins as a nearly jaunty guitar lick slowly turns into a moody, almost Asian-themed number, bolstered by constant rattling percussion. Even better is "Estonia," which is catchier and more propulsive than either combined, occasionally devolving into spats of noise. Spencer stretches what he can do with a single unifying element (that fuzzy guitar again, somewhere between Dick Dale and gypsy punk), apparently the first time he's attempted to play the instrument professionally. Mind you, the man was in bands before becoming on, but it's still notable.
Les Hauts Sommets does expand past the six-string gymnastics occasionally, with disparate elements like the half-Morricone, half-muezzin wail of the somber "Did You Hear the Sound of..." and the thrashing feedback of "Shivers." The latter doesn't work nearly as well as the former, but it's refreshing on a debut album. The album never lasts quite long enough to grow dull, but can sometimes border on background music (or more politely, cinematic fare) as on "The Desert - The Strongest." Still, a first album ending on as strong of a note as a meandering, individualized cover of "Bo Diddley" is a pretty good sign of things to come. Keep strumming, Spencer.
by Nathan Kamal
