TIP OF THE TONGUE 21 SEPTEMBER 2008
James Ferraro
Marble Surf
New Age Tapes No Cat
CD-R
OUT OF STOCK!
Limited Europe-only album from James Ferraro of The Skaters/Lamborghini Crystal et al, the first run ever presented under his own name. Marble Surf is described as a "synthesised choral piece in two parts". It has a beautiful pop-gospel feel, with keyboards circling insistent, timeless melodies (the slightest hint of Suicide's "Dream Baby Dream") while angel voices and male vocals reverberate in great arcs of song from a couple of miles above. Aspects of this remind me of the final weird gospel loop on the Skaters' side of the RRR California box set combined with the elegiac settings of his earlier Excel work but it somehow goes beyond both of those into a realm of such celebratory, melancholy beauty that its hard to put into words. It's a profoundly moving work by James, easily a contender for one of the albums of the year and the most affecting reification to date of Brian Wilson’s concept of a 'teenage symphony to God'; utopian dream pop exotica of the most impossible, otherworldly kind. Up there with the music of Albert Ayler, Terry Riley, William Basinski et al. Absolute genius and enough to reduce you to tears. Highest possible recommendation.
