Hot Chip’s forgotten Irish cousin turns up at the doorstep of your house party with two hits. You have to listen to ‘I Was A Man’ and ‘Phil Lynnott’, laugh out loud, dance and hit repeat.
Like Hot Chip, Jape’s music borrows heavily from 1980s pop bands like Human League and New Order on this CD. Live on stage, Jape, aka Richie Egan from Dublin, is a totally different animal. Turbo-charged and hyper-active, Jape commands the stage - An electro-punk bard with razor sharp wit.
Even though they are a bit toned down, two songs on ‘Ritual’ manage to capture the essence of Japes live shows.
On ‘I Was A Man’, Richie does an almost Johnny Lydon style wail over a steady drum machine and scratchy guitar. Now tell me this doesn’t sound like PIL. Down to the dry humour of lines like ‘I popped my cherry to ‘November Rain’, I think she liked it but don’t think she came’. Classic.
The other stand out track here is ‘Phil Lynnott’, in which Richie is talking his way through the song in convincing singer-songwriter fashion. The timing and delivery of the punchlines is just spot on. If you like Brooklynite Jeffrey Lewis’ dry humour, you need to hear ‘Phil Lynnott’.
The remainig eight tracks on the album jiggle and bounce between 1980s pop (’Streetwise’), disco (’Replays’) and film music (’Nothing Lasts Forever’). Lyrically, ‘Ritual’ comes straight to the point, but in terms of the music it’s a much more restrained album. Nothing really jumps out at first listen, though I like the quirky Casio organ theme on ‘Graveyard’.
‘Ritual’ needs time to grow on you. It really helps to see Jape perform live on stage to get his music. If you’ve been to Glastonbury last weekend or you were at the Odessa gig in Dublin, you’ll know what I mean.
Listen to ‘Ritual’ and download the album from iTunes.
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