Graeme Jefferies' first album leading the three-piece
Cakekitchen was, at the time, an unexpected move for him, harnessing the sometimes dank and dour worldview of his earlier work while handling a much more straight up rock band format with its own power. Thus, on the opener "Dave the Pimp," which paints the vicious portrait of a golden boy turned fleshpeddler and drug pusher, Jefferies sings with a disarming restraint over a great post-punk guitar brawl. While recorded under much the same conditions as previous releases (the liner notes refer to "various Ampex, Otari, Phillips and Teac recorders" rather than studios) everything throughout the album is much crisper and more produced, more chiming Flying Nun than moody Xpressway in sound (though the fantastic "One + One = One" has a wonderful experimental bite to it). Jefferies is a skilled producer, and he plays up the strengths of his band well. Bassist Rachel King's vocals and recorder work on the pretty "Silence of the Sirens." Jefferies' various abilities and careful touches help insure the music never becomes genteel college rock. "Walked Over Texas," with squealed verses and a fair amount of instrumental chaos, particularly stands out. His baritone has never been so warm and winning -- a definite change from the past; even the sharper lyrics are delivered with a relaxing flow. The songs' themes are indeed sharp at times; while hardly a catalog of self-laceration, images of doubt, desolation, and emptiness crop up more than once. On one of the more
This Kind of Punishment-like tracks, "File Under Filed," Jefferies gently broods on a seemingly failed relationship over a stark arrangement of acoustic guitar, then keyboards and piano, before ending on an electronic wheeze. Yet unlike TKP the music warmly invites rather than chillingly captivates -- the difference between TKP and the Cakekitchen as a whole. ~ Ned Raggett