A.R. Kane: "i"

Now you see, it's not really all that difficult. It didn't require a massive flash of inspiration. In fact, it was just a simple idea, adapted from the days of concept LPs (when having Side 1 and Side 2, was too linear, or hierarchical, or reflective of the military-industrial order, or something). So I don't know why smart people like Neil Young and Stereolab don't copy it.

I'm referring of course to techniques for giving some shape and breathing-space-for-ears to 70 minutes of music. A.R. Kane cracked that problem 20 years ago. There's nothing high-concept about the approach on "i" (or, if there is, it's gone right over my head), but they've divided the 16 songs into four groups of four, each labelled after a suit on a pack of cards (spades, diamonds, hearts and clubs), and then divided them with nine 'joker' musical vignettes, between five and thirty seconds long, which serve as markers and breathing space. Simple, effective.

The spades and hearts seem to be the trademark A.R. Kane "dream pop" pieces — catchy and commercial, to these ears — while the diamonds are looser, less structured, mood pieces, and the clubs are heavier, like an English wing of the Black Rock Coalition. Always inventive and interesting (if not quite as sublime as on the Love-Sick EP), this feels like one of the absolute highpoints of the British indie scene. Since then the Americans have had their share of versatile and breathtakingly imaginative indie auteurs — His Name is Alive, Sufjan Stevens and Stephin, of course — but in this country what passes for "indie" has been stuck in a set of cliche nichés.

1989, eh? "i" should have been as big a success as Three Feet High and Rising and The Stone Roses. Then perhaps A.R. Kane wouldn't have lost their nerve and spent five years making a watered-down album before packing it in.

MusicBrainz entry for this album Wikipedia entry for this album Rate Your Music entry for this album Listen to this album in part at Last.fm Listen to this album in full at Spotify