Pieces of 8

This album is referred to at times as Pieces of Infinity or Pieces of Eight and it ranks as one of Edward Ka-Spel's best solo efforts. First noticeable is a comeback to the song format (which his previous full-length for Beta-Lactam Ring, O'er a Shalabast'r Tyde Strolt Ay, lacked), thanks to the opening "The Writing on the Wall," a cross between French alternative chanson (read: alternative pop with accordion) and Ka-Spel's very own universe (and is that a touch of Pink Floyd's "Outside the Wall" we hear?). The accordion will be back in "Shanti," a simple and extremely sympathetic sea shanty pastiche. In between, we come to a smorgasbord of mutating pop, from the industrial mood of "Comedown" (definitely retro-Legendary Pink Dots), to the extended "Here Comes the Night," which blends electronic soundscaping and fragile piano melodies. The whole thing has a dark, whimsical feel to it, even in the lighter tunes, but the climate intensifies in the closing "8.2 8.3," a 15-minute collage extravaganza, with bits of Mellotron, Frippian guitar, laughing children, pouncing beats, and moments of troubling discorporeality. No single track here would do justice to the album as a whole (although "8.2 8.3" comes close) and so Pieces of Infinity is a case of album-listening, where one needs to dive in for the long haul in order to experience all facets of the music. A story is clearly being told, although the number of listens required to unlock its actual narrative is still unknown. This album is brilliant, not because of that obscurity, but because it is not felt as such. ~ François Couture, Rovi