This Is Cinerama
(Spin Art)
Forty-eight minutes worth of singles and extra tracks from David Gedge’s decidedly un-Wedding Present-like post Wedding Present band. This handy disc puts together all four b-sides (the British...so obsessive!) to Cinerama’s debut single “Kerry Kerry”, including the zippy “Au Pair”, which details a married man’s dalliance with said nanny-type (“well, it’s so corny/her world’s turned upside down/’cause he felt horny”) and “Mr. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang”. Also included are in the band’s second single “Dance, Girl, Dance”, which, like “Kerry” was also on Cine’s ‘Va Va Boom’ debut LP, a single from ‘99, “Pacific” b/w “King’s Cross” and “Manhattan”, a single from earlier this year. There is also a compilation track and one remix, bringing the total to 14. There are also two new singles that don’t appear on this compilation, and a new album ‘Disco Volante’, just out on the Manifesto label. Whew!
Oh yeah, is the music any good? Pretty darn fine, as a matter of fact. In many ways, a good comparison would be to the music of the Jam vs. the music that Jam leader Paul Weller made immediately after leaving that band and forming the Style Council. Cinerama features none of the hyper guitar strum of the Wedding Present, instead he gathers lusher, occasionally trip-hop bits into songs that are primarily romantic in nature. The band’s other main member is Gedge’s longtime girlfriend and former Present roadie Sally Murrell. Many of the duets of romantic longing or betrayal they sing here feel real, perhaps touching the raw nerve of real emotion. But for cleverness and listenability, it is easy to see from This Is Cinerama that the band is easily as potent as anything currently being hyped by the British press these days, and as an added bonus, Wedding Present fans who don’t have to have the sound of an electric guitar to achieve musical satisfaction should dig the whole lot, too.
Stinkweeds, 2000
