Published on Feb 2, 2001
There’s very little reason on the surface to be a music reviewer
for “The Daily Vault”. There’s not much material remuneration,
every low grade will bring you a small tempest of email telling you
how stupid you are (I wonder if the Eric Alexandrakis fan club is
still offering a reward for my head?), and you listen to a lot of
mediocre music.
The reason you do it is simple. Every so often you get to listen
to a CD that shows you just how far the envelope can be pushed; a
CD that shows you just how
good a musician can be. Talis Kimberley’s
Archetype Café is that kind of CD; a cold shower, a
brisk walk, a shock to the system made complacent by a plethora of
singer-songwriters. She’s good. She’s damned good.
It’s hard to compare Kimberley to anyone. There’s some Kate
Bush, but she neatly avoids the histrionic primal screaming that
mars Bush’s worst work. There’s some Loreena McKinnitt, but unlike
McKinnitt, Kimberley seems capable of functioning in the real
world. There’s even a little Joni Mitchell, without Mitchell’s
self-indulgent maudlinity.
In short, she’s all the good bits without the bad bits, and
fundamentally Talis Kimberley is her own voice, complex, lyrical,
and multi-talented.
Archetype Café is a CD where Helen of Troy gives
Jeanne d’Arc some friendly advice, the twin threads of spirituality
and sensuality interweave, and dark riders on mysterious roads
mingle with ordinary broken hearts.
Despite the quality, it’s easy to pick out a few tracks as the
crème de la crème. “Small Mended Corners” may be the
best song I’ve ever heard about life and growth. “A Prayer For
Santa Lucia” is incendiary and sensual. “Pale Shamen” has some
wonderful acoustic guitar work, which leads me to congratulate
Kimberley’s backing band, Mystical Beasts, for being very talented.
I also commend Kimberley and Simon Fairbourn for some of the best
production and engineering I’ve ever heard on a small independent
release.
Look, it’s easy for me to wax lyrical with a quiver of five
dollar words shot too far from the gold. The facts remain:
Archetype Café. Excellent CD. Early contender for
2001’s top ten. Log on to the web site, convert your currency to
England’s if it’s not already, and buy it. There are few enough
bards left in England.