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Art Objects - Bagpipe Music
Bristol’s most pretentious, before Blue Aeroplanes took off
Art Objects, the “world’s first poetry dance band” filled the void left when Howard Devoto’s Magazine folded and before Morrissey and The Smiths ascended. Inspired by fellow West Countrymen Glaxo Babies, Wire and Beat Poetry, they were truly unique in that they had a nonsinging poet, Gerard Langley, as a frontman. This, their only album, was awarded an unprecedented five stars by Sounds on its release in 1981.
A third of the tracks are poems recited over treated feedback and dubby ambient noise, but eight are more structured ‘songs’, with guitar bearing a distinct similarity to the chiming repetition of Edge’s work from around the same time. Langley’s words, delivery and vocabulary threaten to dominate proceedings, but the music holds its own. Showing Off To Impress The Girls, a 24-carat classic pop single of which The Smiths would’ve been proud, is so sublime you barely notice it’s not actually sung. Four bonus tracks make this the essential post-punk release of the summer.
Cherry Red | CDMRED 316
Reviewed by Ged Babey
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