‘Two Feathers’ is Rollerball’s fifteenth album, but I must say that they are a very well kept secret, and rightly so, for while this album isn’t bad, the best tracks are outshone by experimental feedback which does nothing to enhance the experience for the listener.
Starter, ‘Aquapipe Netarts’ is a slow burner opening with a dreamy melody woven around synth and sax, which carries on for about two and a half minutes before changing into a piano melody that is a little bit ‘Aladdin Sane’, but with a nice twist in the lyrics: - “We can get drunk on fire and go downtown/ To the flights of stairs that lead to sound.”
Following swiftly on from this is ‘Osicles’ a dark and moody song based around a jazzy piano riff, with some introspective lyrics from vocalist Mae Starr, who does have a very good voice:
“My heart’s in the darkest part of the blue sky again.”
After this however, there is a massive dip, with the third track ‘Rick Wright’ being very difficult to listen to and appreciate. With distorted vocals swathed in messy electronics, this comes across less as any tribute to the late keyboard player from Pink Floyd, and more as an experiment gone wrong. It just doesn’t work.
‘Camera’d’ swiftly redresses this being a cocktail jazz type track, which speeds up towards the end. Again, the lyrical theme appears to be alienation:- “Gave you my word, for you to judge me.”
The electro percussion track that follows ‘Camera’d’, ‘Say it’ is probably best forgotten, being in the same vein as ‘Rick Wright.’
Thankfully, then we come to the best part of the album, the three tracks ‘Split Pea’, ‘The Sac’, and ‘South Dakota’ are really good. ‘Split Pea’ features a great lively interplay between sax and keyboards, and a cool line in abrasive lyrics “There won’t be shit left to talk about”. ‘The Sac’ is centred around a funky bass line and an eastern tinged (in parts) melody. Virtually an instrumental, this shows that the band can make some great music. ‘South Dakota’ has a descending piano/sax line and is another winner.
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After this though, things just fall apart. The last three tracks are all in part, feedback, white noise and distorted saxophone. Cabaret Voltaire and The Jesus and Mary Chain may have been able to get away with feedback as it was quite novel back then, but here, it just renders the last few tracks on the album unlistenable.
This is a real pity, because almost half of the tracks on the album were very good, it is just the experimentalism that ruins it for me. It is interesting to note that the publicity handout which came with the CD recommends three tracks that I thought were some of the best on the album.
Drop the feedback folks; you can do far better without it.
Rollerball on Myspace
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