Cabrini
Self Titled (Cassette Tape)
 The Shmat would like to announce that he has procurred by hook or crook a "tape player alarm clock cube" made by Sounddesign, probably in the mid 80s. Interestingly enough, when plugged in the radio is always on, even when the switch is in the "off" position. The Shmat guesses this is the kind of alarm clock radio that you can never shut off, wonderfully brilliant for snooze button abusers! In any case this means that his famous long and drawn out battles with the walkman are now over since he has this fun little alarm clock on which to play and review tapes. Hooray!
Up this time is this fun release by the band Cabrini (originially called Project Cabrini) out on Best Kept Secret. Made up of Austin Bean and Kory Ross, this tape is actually not their newest release; the duo currently have a CD out on Red Square. But the Shmat couldn't help writing a bit about some of the fun songs on this self titled debut tape of theirs. What is it like? It's kind of like: the Masters of the Hemisphere in a drag race with The Hangups and the Field Mice and when the Masters blow a tire, they jump into The Hang Ups roadster and hightail it after the Field Mice, and then after the race the 3 bands go kick it at a picnic that The Autumns are having in their backyard. Have you ever seen those ridiculous commercials for Sierra Mist like where the guy in the commercial gets his dog to kick over the fire hydrant and this blast of water engulfs him and they say, "it's kind of like that?", meaning their soda. Doombly, just doombly. See, so the Shmat is allowed to work some sort of hyperbole into his stories too...
But seriously, the guitars ring and chime very well on songs like "Fearlessly Waiting". Nice compact harmonies are present on all the songs. There is a bit of electronic experimental stuff running through the mix and the boys have a definite shoe fetish at times. (There, Shmat went and referenced the "SG" word again.) "He Switch On The" switches on dreamy and drawn out, and the singing on "Second Motion" is kind of like John Davis from Folk Implosion. Actually, the harmonies are somewhat like Kings of Convenience too. There are a lot of fun bells on "Dramatized" and "A Perfect Day" is just perfectly paced. "Sum It Up", with it's playful bongos, perhaps does sum up the overall feeling of this album, and that is: like eggs, fun music things seem to go over easy for fun musical people, and this tape does go over easy (well, also it's the same set of songs on both sides, so it's even easier!) Not in any way taking away from their more experimental side, but Cabrini can sure write some good standard indie pop songs. So if you're in the mood for this type of hooky stuff and you're armed with a tape player you can't choose a better release to relive your days of magnetic particle audio translation. Yes, the Shmat made up that phrase...
- review by SHMAT (12.17.03)
Best Kept Secret
c/o Alessandro Crestani
Via Biron di Sotto, 101
36100 Vicenza, Italy
kory@projectcabrini.com
www.projectcabrini.com
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