The Jimmy Cake

A review of their album 'Dublin Gone. Everybody Dead.'

The calm before the storm. That's what it is like listening to 'The Opposite of Addiction', the opening track from the Jimmy Cake's second album 'Dublin Gone. Everybody Dead'. The first three minutes pass away nice and quietly, but the next seven see it turn into a post rock extravaganza, (albeit one with the Jimmy's array of usually unique 'rock' instruments), when the track is built up to a mammoth cliffhanger, before crashing back to earth, and then returning to its summit again. What better way to start album? Indeed 'The Opposite?' is typical of the album as a whole. The listener never knows what lurks around the next corner from the newly expanded Dublin outfit.

'Quartz Cat Waltz' is up next, and it is a mellow two minutes of guitar-plucking, which gives way to 'Death Fall Priest', which is their most guitar-orientated track yet. The riff-laden intro develops into what seems like MBV heights of guitar wizardry fuzziness, before what seems like a banjo picks up the pace, before the guitars take over again. This album is certainly heavier than its predecessor 'Brains', with guitars taking up a more prominent position. However, like 'Brains', instruments as 'un-rock and roll' as accordion, clarinet and saxophone also play a vital role. 'The Width of the Black' may sound like the theme music for a superhero, but it yet again displays their renewed fondness for white noise, and is accompanied by a sort of march drum that the Artane Boys' Band would be proud of.

The album changes in the middle, with tracks like the atmospheric 'Wir Schalafen Auf Dem Boden'. However, it soon picks up pace with 'Ricky Sound', whose hip-shaking capabilities could see this one go down a storm on some dancefloors! 'Dublin Dead. Everybody Gone' comes to a climax with 'Limestone Tiger', which at times sounds distinctly like 'This Used To Be The Future' from their debut album. With so many musicians pulling in some many directions, many would have predicted the music of this motley crew to be total chaos. At times it is, but yet it is far more coherent than it's predecessor. This is sweet chaos, played by a band not far away from reaching the messiah pedestal that many have already put them on.

Ciaran Ryan

Check out the Jimmy Cake's website
Check out a review of the previous Jimmy Cake release 'Brains'