Sinister: moikai

[Johan Nilsson]

ok


Moikai is japanese for something like 'play it again'. it's actually a 
record label run by Jim O'Rourke who recently put out a lovely Cd with Aki 
Tsuyuko. well if you are into minimalistic music you should check out Moikai 
and their releases... but i am not refering to the label...

no i am refering to the new Belle and Sebastian Lp. so a warning here, if 
you don't wanna know anything about the new album or even just little notes, 
go away, read a book or go out in the sunshine...

i am gonna make some references here... have you heard of Postcard? a small 
little label that excisted in the beginning of the 80s in Glasgow. well they 
had a slogan which was like The Sound of Young Scotland, a rip off the 
slogan of Motowns, The Sound of Young America. Some bands that were around 
during the early Postcard era was  Josef K and the more known Orange Juice. 
Edwyn Collins, the 1/2 brain and lead singer of Orange Juice wanted Orange 
Juice to sound like a Motown 60s band. well this he claims. first time i 
heard this i thought that he was a little out of his mind because Orange 
Juice sound nothing like a Motown band. then i heard our dear Belle and 
Sebastian cover Orange Juice "In A Nutshell" with Isobel on lead vocals and 
all the sudden it actually made a little sense. ever since i have had two 
obsessions in my mind, a) i really wanna start an Orange Juice cover band 
that makes Orange Juice sound like if they were on Motown and b) that Belle 
and Sebastian somehow have the same idea that Edwyn Collins has... to make 
Belle and Sebastian sound like a Motown 60s band. so somehow i had the 
feeling that Fold Your Hands Child would sound something different then 
usually. i start listen to the first track, I Fought A War. proven wrong 
right away. see have you noticed how all three previous albums start with 
Stuart singing with just an acustic guitar? He did it on The State I Am In, 
The Stars of Track and Field and It Could Have Been a Brilliant Career and 
oh yes, he does it on I Fought A War. so no, Belle and Sebastian hadn't 
changed... thank god.

i made my friend Trevor a copy of Fold Your Hands cuz he begged me to. one 
thing that stroke me though, was when we were in his car listening to the 
tape for the first time and during I Fought A War he starts singing. i was 
shocked. how could he, he didn't know the lyrics, did he? no he didn't. fact 
is and i had almost figured out which at this point, but I Fought A War has 
striking similitaries with another british bands song. unfortuantly, ever 
since Trevor got me to know which song it was i cannot get it out of my head 
and now it is always there in my head. damn you Trevor. since i respect you 
kids so much i will not say what song it is. but fact is, I Fought A War is 
a beautiful song, amazing, lovely, or as a guy i met in a triftstore the 
other day looking at a super 8 camera said, fucking dailed.

i know this is not very hip of me to ask, but have you ever seen the movie 
Rushmore? i know, it's defiantly not hip of me to say but i love that movie. 
Bill Murray is my idol, ever since Groundhog Day which is one of my absolute 
favorite movies. well my friend Aaron also loves this movie and he got the 
soundtrack. however, unfortunatly there is none of the funny comments in the 
movie like "i wrote a hit play, what did you ever do?" on the Cd, just the 
instrumental guitar playing melodies that appear every now and then during 
the entire movie. randomly enough, the second song The Model starts with a 
melody that directly reminds me of the ones from Rushmore. let me say this 
about the song though, Stuart Murdoch is something else. this song is really 
beautiful. one of the best on the album.

i saw my first theatre play when i was a young boy. well i don't really 
remember how old i was really. and i don't remember what the play was called 
or really the story line but i still remember how much i loved it. i 
remember how my older sister took me to see the play cuz her friend was in 
it. i lived in a small town and this play was really big and i guess one of 
the biggest plays that has ever appeared in my town. all i can remember of 
the story line is that it was slavery and slaves coming to america. a really 
sad play. they even put out a tape with this play on it and my sister had a 
copy. i used to borrow it from her and lay in my bed and listen to it. there 
was a lot of singing and the third track Beyond the Sunrise contains a 
beautiful beautiful choir melody that reminds me deeply of that play. it's 
so lovely.

three tracks in a hurry: fourth track Waiting for the Moon to Rise our dear 
Isobel appears at her best ever. her singing is just the best. wonderful, 
hurray for you Isobel. keep 'em coming. so it took about a year to record 
Fold Your Hands? well it is quite a production, Don't Leave the Light on 
Baby contains a really beautiful string session melody, something that could 
have taken from Tindersticks. The Wrong Girl, or as it was called earlier, 
The Wrong Love, has been heard a few times already, add a cowbell. 
doubtlessly the best song i have heard Stevie sing ever and the only song i 
already know all the lyrics to.

two short tracks: The Chalet Lines, well i am not sure, well i am pretty 
sure, but the choirs line that Stuart sings is 'he raped me in the chalet 
lines'. it's a punch in the stomach. but then he raisens it up and says how 
she stuck a knife in the guys eye. appearently a friend of Stuart thinks he 
should tell the police what happened, but Stuart swears and says it's no 
point. yeah, Stuarts swears a few times on this album. Short but lovely. 
Nice Day for a Sulk is also short. A little bit like missing something, but 
damn beautiful anyways.

two references about Isobels vocals: one might say that Isobels vocals is 
too fragile for Woman's Realm but it is still a marvelous song. lovely 
melody and everything else Belle and Sebastian stands for. like in Waiting 
for the Moon to Rise, Isobel appears at her best in Family Tree. Family Tree 
is beautiful, period.

best song on the album? well if you asked me yesterday i would have said The 
Model, the day before Family Tree, but today i think it's There's Too Much 
Love. lovely ending song. i don't know what else to say, I don't really 
think I need to say anything, bravo bravo. in the car with a slurpee in in 
my hand this got me up really well last night driving to see Stereolab and 
Chicago Underground Dup in LA, which was by the way lovely. Simply, there is 
just too much love to go around.

so i yeah i was wrong, Belle and Sebastian didn't turn out to try sounding 
like a Motowns 60s band. maybe in twenty years some young man not too 
different from me, will go, hey, i know what i wanna do, i wanna start a 
Belle and Sebastian cover band and try to make their songs sound like a 
Motowns 60s band. well we know that the boy would be insane. basically. he's 
name might just be johan.

<lv.johan

PS. oh did i forget to mention? the new Belle and Sebastian is beautiful! i 
can play it over and over again... moikai!
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