Pena Records is pleased to announce its premier LP release and the first solo LP by Richard Papiercuts: A Sudden Shift.
Richard Papiercuts' CV includes somber musique concrete and noise experiments for Azul Discografica, collaborations with Mattin (including 2011's
Exquisite Corpse LP), action-drumming for a certain NY-based Slavic psych-noise trio, and as LF Restaurant, 14 years as singer / songwriter / guitarist in The Chinese Restaurants. With that slippery outfit, Papiercuts crafted two ignoble classics of 2010 in the EPs "River of Shit" and "Summer Romance", celebrated art-punk slabs that turned heads at WFMU, The Wire, and Maximum Rock 'N' Roll alike.
As the blogosphere might put it, "fidelity-wise this is a major step up" from those Chinese Restaurants singles. A Sudden Shift took over a year to record, during stolen late night hours at a secret 24-track analog studio, deep inside a Harlem warehouse on the verge of demolition, with Richard overdubbing most of the tracks himself. How'd it turn out? A dense, throbbing art-rock/postpunk/singer-songwriter record, riddled with secrets, brimming with hooks -- a bleak 'n' anguished New York song cycle shot through with oblique humor.
Let's be clear about one thing: Dick is an abject, emotionally shameless onanist-in-sound. He repurposes everything in the service of a perverse, densely referential sensibility. We think the intention here was to make a sort of urban
Corky's Debt to His Father or, maybe a loner-folk take on
Deceit. Intermittently, too, it recalls
Nite Flights,
Dub Housing,
A Trip to Marineville,
Royal Trux,
Helen Said This,
Torch of the Mystics, even
Alien Lanes; but it stays its peculiar course, pulls you through a sequence of trapdoors and secret passageways, queasy narratives with chunks torn out of them and lacquered over with compression, saxophones, obscene grunts, and moments of conniving beauty.
Richard sang like a beast, and arranged, played guitars, drums, keys, etc. Avant-reedsman Ed Bear (Twistycat) played tenor sax; Rabbi Martha Mozszinsky played cello; Criss Criss lent his molten, double-dong leads to one key track. Malcolm Tent (Ultrabunny), Pascal Ludet (Pop. 1280), and LF himself pumped the Chinese rock in a shit-hot version of the Restaurants' protest song for all seasons, "River of Shit." Andrew Dreyer engineered the album, Cale/Ra inheritor Matt Mottel (Platinum Vision, CSC Funk) played piano and synth, and Bil Bowen (DJ/Rupture and Nettle) baked it 'til it was done. The recordings are "upper-mid-fi" and crystal-clear.
Clean and fucked up. Sweet and sour. A Sudden Shift sounds like no other record in recent memory.
ORDER:
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Reviews:
Debut solo long player for Dick Papiercuts, long time NYC Avant Rock man-about-town, and 14+ years under his belt with sporadically operating Chinese Restaurants, as well as the first release for the CA-based Pena label. I thought that the last two Chinese Restaurants singles on SS a few years back were fine enough, but their no-fi, (probably intentionally off-putting) jokey nature didn't earn 'em many repeat plays in my household. The press writeup on this thing just sounded so damn enticing I couldn't resist though. Label's shilling it as an urban update to Corky's Debt...well sheeiiitt Holmes, nem's sum pretty big shoes to fill. Let's try 'em on for size...what'd 'ya know-they fit! The joking continues on this record, with the word play in the name, ridiculous vocal crooning and plenty of piss-taking on innocent targets (Joy Division and Bunuel on "Virdiana," Mighty Baby on "The Devils", the godawful new-wave cum-on of "Let's Make Love," just to name a few) but it doesn't seem as tossed off this time around to me. In fact nothing sounds tossed off at all. The songs on this record are complex, diverse, and in their own peculiar way, mature. After a noisy opening blast Dick settles into the lunging "Yolanda", sounding like the estranged 4th Walker Brother whose share of tunes written for Nite Flites got cut from the original. To close out the A-side, the Restaurant's protest staple "River of Shit" gets re-worked sans Obama speech-clip with members of Ultra Bunny and Pop. 1280. "Mary Ann (The Lens)" is like the Frogs on an English Folk bender and self-references "River of Shit" in its lyrics. And closer "Johnnie" sounds oddly akin, whether it was intended to or not, to Hurt Me-era Thunders. As someone who often finds himself a good deal funnier and more charming than others seem to, I feel like I can really relate to where Dick's coming from with this one. Even if the quips aren't good, some body's gotta laugh at 'em. You know that well intentioned, vaguely-creepy yet awesome older dude who schooled you on everything from Canterbury Prog. to the books Tarkovsky adapted his story-lines from when you were like 19, but when you heard the music he was working on it was just kinda corny and tedious? This is like if it were really good instead. (Put The Blog In It's Coffin)Or, in other words, An Album Made By Artist Formerly Known As The Leader of the Chinese Restaurants. The name change involves a change of tone - from distorto-scum-rock, Papiercuts (no, I did not make an error in his name) jumps into r'n'r for adults (file under: solo Reed / Iggy ). No longer produced by Mattin, this stuff contains clear sounding cuts recorded in a professional studio. For those who remember the Obama speech sample from the first CR single: this record is still political in some places. "The Devils" is a piece about partying in New York, and a recapitulation of a genocide, the aforementioned "River of Shit" reappears, this time in a slightly smoothed and shortened version, without the aforementioned sample. Papiercuts sings in a trembling voice, the arrangements go mainly toward art-rock (listen to "Working Hour" cover), although the seriousness is broken by the penultimate, distorted and naive cut titled "Let's Make Love". Rumour has it that the guy recorded the whole thing during few evenings stealing the studio time to access and record 24-track overdubs. Nice story, a fantastic album. (Tableau!)From my exhaustive research (I read the one-sheet), I?ve determined that Richard Papiercuts is one of the guys in The Chinese Restaurants, stepping out on his own (which is to say, supported by a variety of musicians to sometimes include the other members of The Chinese Restaurants). While I certainly enjoy both names (particularly the French touch in ?Papiercuts?), I can understand the decision to step out under a different moniker, as A Sudden Shift is a far cry from the filth-blown noise-punk of The Chinese Restaurants. In fact, I still can?t quite figure out what A Sudden Shift is all about ? on the whole, it reminds me of Pere Ubu channeling some of the worst Sun City Girls albums, with a vocalist who celebrates his record collection by mocking it, singing in this over-extended goofball voice that somehow seems sincere. And just on the first side alone, you get a couple sleepy, early-indie-rock dirges, a Dire Straits-styled jam that Blues Control would probably sample, and a farty new rendition of ?River Of Shit?, perhaps The Chinese Restaurants? finest moment. There?s quite a lot to digest, and it seems like every time an eye-rolling moment compels me to take the record off, Mr. Papiercuts fires off some short blast of genius, forcing me to move away from the turntable and back onto the couch. Can?t even say for sure that it?s a good record, but I?ve certainly enjoyed myself trying to unravel the musical motivations and aesthetic intent behind it. Those who just listen to the first thirty seconds of an MP3 and then delete it need not apply ? cancel those dinner plans, you?re gonna need to set aside some time for Richard Papiercuts. (Yellow Green Red)
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