clapton fox

Kaniepien is a Polish-born classically trained multi-instrumentalist and former choir boy. After the demise of The Laughing Windows he began calling himself Clapton Fox (well why not?!), and recruited drummer George Zampirolo for this new band.

It's obvious from the first few tracks that this is an album that's going to take you to places you may not have been before. A sonic adventure even, affirmed by the Dali-esque cover. Kicking off with “Ain't No Justice In The Sky I” with its Buddy rich style jazz drumming, analogue synth breaks and detached hazy vocals, you get the feeling this is an album made with a spirit of exploration and a total disregard for fads and fashions. Hooray for that. Even the influences which can be detected (and there are many) have all been absorbed for their essence rather than slavishly photocopied.

If you still want comparisons there's bits of Pompei-era Floyd, Super Furry Animals, Weather Report, Can and Syd Barrett amongst others. But Clapton Fox only really sound like themselves. Urban and wily, hard to pin down and all the better for it.

The album ends with “Ain't No Justice In The Sky II”, an outre instrumental version of the album opener, - Subba-Cultcha

Clapton Fox puts you in that autumn mood. MGMT – Time To Pretend’s evil twin, the album ‘Amazing Thunderstorm’ is deep, dark and damn right devious.

If you’re anything like me one of the first things you’ll do when contemplating the purchase of an album is read the track titles. You’ll quickly notice that ‘Twelve Pairs of Shoes’ sounds like the title of a Rolf Harris song, right? Well actually it’s surprisingly appropriate because this track is an uncanny impression of Rolf himself singing along to ‘The Mars Volta – Televators’. I’m not going to lie, that’s fine by me and if you turn down the reverb and synths on ‘She Ate the Feather’ (another Rolf Harris copy-cat title) you may find yourself listening to a song somewhat akin to any given track of Massive Attack. It makes me feel mellow, though there’s no denying that this track isn’t for everyone. For those of you seeking something trippy, loose and experimental, this is the one for you. Everyone else, just press skip. - Never Enough Notes

Clapton Fox songs are written and sung by Robert Kaniepien, who appears to have a poet in him, when it comes to lyrics. The elegance and creativity of the words really stands out as beautiful. The record opens with; 'Ain't no Justice in the Sky I', with a grainy, radio-muffled sound, and deep, monotone vocal. The instrumental on the tracks is quite dominantly electric, and the sound is heavily technologically crafted. 'Scan Brown Mink' uses a distorted vocal for the entire track, and a very synthetic instrumental sound. 'Dear Dead Friends', despite the macabre title, has a surprisingly cheerful sound, and is very much split into two halves; a catchy, high-pitched backing rhythm, and a wistful but strong male vocal.
'Amazing Thunderstorm', the fourth and eponymous track, has a good, strong beat, which is appealing (and, quite frankly, funky), but it opens with a disturbing recording of a woman's incoherent crying, a woman clearly in distress, which is significantly unsettling. 'Procrastination', on the other hand, mixes a heavily electro sound, with an oddly incongruous acoustic guitar, and an almost Beach Boys or Monkees style melody. It feels like a mishmash, as though some musical dial is spinning through genres, and stopping to play one or two lines, then moving on to something else. In parts it sounds like The Coral, in parts it sounds like The Beatles, and then comes the odd Robert Smith whisper, sufficiently creepy. 'Twelve Pairs of Shoes', nearly at the end of the record, is joyfully celebratory; half modern-London-indie, half Blur-Oasis from the '90's.

On the most part, it works, but sometimes the absurdity gets away from the track a little bit, just for a few bars. Amongst so much of modern music that's replication and unoriginality, it's very refreshing to be woken up by something different, and this record is certainly unique.

- Contact Music