Kloot Per W explores with a sense of musical adventure, investigating a series of styles across his career. In parts the album descends into farce, in others there is some real quality on show. An ambitious assortment from Antwerp.
It can be easy for releases to be missed. Every week there is a stream of material, a monthly deluge of new tracks from artists and labels from across the globe. Promotion can be difficult, especially in the din of social media and the selectivity of certain record stores. An LP from Walhalla has fallen into this category. Some months back the Antwerp imprint released a compilation from Kloot Per W, an artist with a back catalog stretching some thirty years. It is to this impressive discography Walhalla have turned for Playback With A Switch – A Cassette Anthology 1978-1982.
The strings and energy of the American West Coast are mixed with the synthesizer sedatives of Europe. Instrumental works are mixed with vocal outings, the likes of “Disconnected” rumbling with a latent positivity. “Buildings” aches with the woes of the modern condition whilst “White Rastafari Dub” pivots into reggae absurdity. “Relations Between People” is downtrodden and “Murder” is blackened Korg heartache. There is a darkened aspect to much of the material, a sorrow juxtaposed by guitar bravado, as in “Cold Turkey.” Youthful exuberance is coupled with a desire for experimentation, a hopefulness for something better or just something else. The palette cleansing “Zwarte Kerst” closes the LP, a purging curtain fall.
Playback With A Switch – A Cassette Anthology 1978-1982 resuscitates a spread of lost works. Kloot Per W explores with a sense of musical adventure, investigating a series of styles across his career. In parts the album descends into farce, in others there is some real quality on show. An ambitious assortment from Antwerp.
Playback With A Switch… is available on Walhalla.
