Odyshape
| Odyshape | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Studio album by The Raincoats | ||||
| Released | 1981 | |||
| Recorded | Bob's Berry Street Studio, Clerkenwell, London; March- June 1980 | |||
| Genre | Post-punk, experimental[1] | |||
| Length | 34:54 | |||
| Label | Rough Trade | |||
| Producer | Adam Kidron, The Raincoats | |||
| The Raincoats chronology | ||||
| ||||
| Professional ratings | |
|---|---|
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic |   link |
| Pitchfork Media | (8/10) link |
Odyshape, released in 1981, is the second album by The Raincoats. Stylistically, Odyshape was a radical departure from the band's first album, exploring different musical genres and featuring a diverse range of instruments, such as the shruti box, balophone, shehnai and kalimba.[2] The album was originally released by Rough Trade, and was re-issued in 1993 by Geffen Records.
Odyshape was recorded after Palmolive, the band's original drummer, had left the group, and the Raincoats hired P.I.L.'s Richard Dudanski, This Heat's Charles Hayward, and Robert Wyatt of Soft Machine to fill in.
Reception
- "This album has little in common with anything else around at the time, other than the feeling that you're hurtling relentlessly forward into a previously unmapped musical space...It's a very intimate recording, full of sounds they wisely never tried to recreate again, and vocal takes that are often inflected with a heart-crushing vulnerability."[3]
- "More than the exotic instrumentation, though, it's the extraordinary structures of Odyshape's songs that distinguish it. They don't so much begin and end as ebb and flow in a way that, historically, seems to have bewildered at least as many listeners as it's beguiled."[2]
Track listing
All tracks composed by The Raincoats; except where indicated
- "Shouting Out Loud" (The Raincoats, Ingrid Weiss) - 4:54
- "Family Treet" (The Raincoats, Caroline Scott) - 4:12
- "Only Loved at Night" - 3:32
- "Dancing in My Head" - 5:26
- "Odyshape" (The Raincoats, Ingrid Weiss) - 3:37
- "And Then It's O.K." (The Raincoats, lyrics: Caroline Scott) - 3:05
- "Baby Song" - 4:54
- "Red Shoes" - 2:51
- "Go Away" - 2:23
"Only Loved at Night" was covered by Softboiled Eggies for "Rough Trade - Counter Culture 2008" compilation.
Personnel
- Ana da Silva - vocals, guitar, scruti box, kalimba, bass, percussion, harmonica
- Gina Birch - vocals, bass, belafon
- Vicky Aspinall - vocals, guitar, bass, violin, piano
- Georgie Born - cello on "Dancing In My Head"
- Dick O’Dell, Shirley O'Loughlin, Kadir Durvesh Shehnai, Ingrid Weiss - percussion
- Robert Wyatt - drums on "And Then It's O.K."
- Richard Dudanski - drums on "Dancing In My Head"
- Charles Hayward - drums on "Family Treet" and "Go Away"
- Ingrid Weiss - drums on "Shouting Out Loud" and "Odyshape"
Cover art
The album cover is based on the painting Peasant Woman by Russian artist Kazimir Malevich.[4]
References
- ↑ Reynolds, Simon (1998). Energy Flash. Faber & Faber.
- 1 2 Power, Chris (2011). "Review: Post-punk outfit's ambitious second LP of 1981 should be considered a classic". BBC.
- ↑ Neyland, Nick (12 September 2011). "Review: The Raincoats, Odyshape".
- ↑ http://www.wikiart.org/en/kazimir-malevich/peasant-woman