Jessy and chums are here to sing to you about the dark side in a funny poetic manor. Pitched some where between lofi, art house, burlesquenuss’, and looking like 60’s Paris Chic (that’s “sheeque” dahling) meets “Coota” (from The Dukes Of Hazard). So now that that’s all crystal, listen up as the fabulous FLIPRON scare you half to death with their unique view of the world and it’s quirks. Blimey!
You can see more up to the minute info about FLIPRON on the MANAGEMENT PAGE on this site.
www.flipron.co.uk
Since first coming across FLIPRON 4 years ago we have been booking the band most of their London shows ever since. U.A.N. has received more requests for info about FLIPRON than for any other band we have ever worked with. When you see them live you will know why. You can listen to The Visious Car And Love Poem on the Juke Box page on this site.
FLIPRON features multi instrumental front man Jessie who presents his often disturbing lyrical content along side the rich hammond of Joe Atkinson. Bass and drums comes from "The Cooters" so named because they look like their name sake in The Dukes Of Hazard.
The music is dark edgy lo-fi poetry decadently intelligent for enjoyers of polished unusual style. FLIPRON host their regular night at The Arts Cafe, "The Smelly Ball" is a monthly high light running on the last Friday of each month.
Signed to independent Tiny Dog Records (Scott 4 and Magic Car) FLIPRON's debut album "Fancy Blues & Rustique Novelties" will be in stores in the next few months.
Twisted Sinister
FLIPRON Fancy Blues and Rustique Novelties (Tiny Dog) 4/5 Charles Shaar Murray likes a mix of eerie fairground and literate cabaret
At a time when too many new guitar bands seem to slip easily into a basic set of stylistic options, its a treat to encounter a genuinely uncategorisable group. London band Flipron have been together for five years, you would think that would be long enough to develop a uniquely personal sonic vision, and in this case you would be right. Thanks to Joe Atkinsons eerie Hammond organ, their sound falls between a fairground and a cabaret.
Fronted by singer/ songwriter / multi-instrumentalist Jesse Budd, they plough a furrow intriguingly distant from most of the contemporary cliché zones. Budds small crisp voice may recall Neil Tennant, Marc Almond or even (help) Al Stewart, but his songs evoke both Jacques Brels Disque Bleu angst and Ray Davies off hand anecdotalism. His hyper literate, densely rhymed lyrics- ‘My head and my heart fought like brother torn apart/ I got Cained and completely un-Abel’ - would not have shamed either Elvis Costello or Ian Dury at their freshest and Stiffest. The colours and textures his various instruments - guitar, harmonica, mandolin, accordion - bring to a basic four -piece line-up create far richer soundscapes than those of your average group. From zippy lap steel-driven instrumentals (Skeletons on Holiday”) to affecting exercises in suburban pastoralism (‘Hanging Round the Lean-to with Grandad’) via sinister tales of drunkenness and cruelty (‘Raindrops Keep Falling on the Dead’), Flipron deliver extreme variety.
Charles Shaar Murray Observer Music Monthly Sunday 17th October
Possibly the strangest album to be released this year, Flipron sound as if they have just stepped out of a Victorian era circus/cabaret to proudly present Fancy Blues and Rustique Novelties, a trashy cocktail of Blues, Country, and even Tango that is impossible to specifically categorise.
At a time when seemingly every single guitar band are pigeon holed into various groups/movements and genres it is quite refreshing to hear an act that can safely claim to be original.
Quite simply, Flipron is unlike anything ive heard before. Yes, I am vaguely familiar of the ingredients to the aforementioned cocktail however, I have never heard them combined on the same album and in some cases on the same track!
Starting with Raindrops keep falling on the Dead, which the band describe as ‘a trashy reply to Bacharachs easy classic’ the band go onto take you into a surreal world where they are chased by a mob of dying pensioners (Hungamunga) go drinking with baboons (Big Baboon) and do battle with evil black cars (Two Vicious Cars and a Love Poem).
Top marks go to Rusty Casino’s Casino Rustique a track with lyrics that sound as if it could have come from the Mike Skinner school of ‘real’ life in which the hero is refused entry to a club ‘Its nothing personal we just don’t like your face’!. All this is set against backdrop of an accordion led tune, which wouldn’t sound out of place in a godfather film.
Flipron’s multi-layered sound is down to their penchant for the use of random instruments. As well as the accordion, the ukulele, mandolin and even the Hawaiian guitar make guest appearances. Combine this with the darkly witty and poetic lyrics Flipron seem to have invented their own specific mind fuck genre where nothing is as it seems.
In short, Fancy Blues is a thoroughly original concept that is unlikely to appeal to the masses. However, to certain acquired tastes it may be just what the (witch) doctor ordered.
Ben Cannon Glasworks.com
Bringing flower wreaths, keys, lap guitars, and accordions into play to carry along their crazy cabaret. Mad it was, and mad went the ladies. The effect was striking; as if they were broadcasting on a wavelength that only the women in the audience could pick up. There is obviously something about the cheeky delivery of this Thomas Traux style anti-folk replete with monster-hop piano and children’s book lyrics that particularly appeal to the feminine ear. Not that is wasn’t enjoyable for the male listener too, as the lyrics of ’Big Baboon’ and ’Hungamunga’ couldn’t help but bring a smile. Alt-country so off the wall that’s probably tending the compost heap at the bottom of the garden, it was for the most part quirky and captivating, despite rattling along at largely the same tempo, though one couldn’t help but suspect it might not be something you’d want to see again and again.
http://www.gigwise.com/contents.asp?contentid=3117 Review of Choke Night FLIPRON played in Bristol on the 23 October 2004
"It is impossible to do justice to lyrics of such poetic unity.......Fancy Blues & Rustique Novelties is a marvellous album."
http://www.livejournal.com/users/neil_scott/
"Its kind of dark mysterious and slightly sinister ... (if Flipron were a cheese?) it might possibly be Venezuelan Beaver Cheese; of Monty Python fame, but see what you think."
Tom Robinson Evening Sequence
"Flipron are truly quite a find. Fancy Blues And Rustique Novelties is a multi-layered, fantastically unpredictable and often morbidly hilarious ride which all discerning music fans need to hear. Lets hope this is merely the sound of them gunning that jet-black hearse and easing it onto the highway for a lengthy death trip."
Whisperin & Hollerin
".....As unique as their name....Flipron play easy listening in the true sense of music that is melodic and pleasing......Lyrically, Jesse follows his flights of fancy wherever they take him, frequently arriving at superb fables like that of Youth Shall Never Beat Old Age in a Race......a song about nothing less than mortality and the meaning of life.....Flipron have an album out (soon)...look out for it."
The Minds Construction
"Easy listening for the uneasy... a myriad of familiar musical sounds become beaten into unrecognisable shapes.... Dark, twisted, friendly, eclectic and tuneful, with a nihilistic-poet at the helmyou wont know why Flipron intrigue you but it is doubtless they will."
National Student
This album is described on the cover as "39 minutes in the merciless hands of Flipron". Well this is not long enough as far as I am concerned. 'Fancy Blues And Rustique Novelties' is poetic and can be quite melancholic, yet this is not a depressing album - despite the recurring themes of death and ghostliness. In fact, its guaranteed to make you smile. The lyrics are inspired with clever rhymes resulting in some cracking songs. Each track is a story and Flipron have definitely got that elusive "catchy" factor, Big Baboon for example, is bound to have you singing along in no time.
thebeatsurrender.co.uk
Amidst the lethal cocktail of strange exotica, black humour, harpsichords and off-key vocals, thereâ??s a joyous realisation that being eclectic doesnâ??t necessarily involve a pretentious, pre-planned aproach to music-making. Bizarre to say the least, thankfully.
http://www.angryape.com/reviews/392
To listen to this album is to enter a peculiar world where logic is fractured and the plot is more twisted than the most complex film noir you can imagine.... It is the most amusing and lyrically clever album Ive heard this year.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/collective/A2936432
"Flippin ’ell!"
Flipron - Fancy Blues and Rustique Novelties
Flipron are a comedy band …. Wait, come back! Although most comedy albums are really just one listen articles, this one actually has a lasting factor. There is a sort of manic humour underlying in practically every song - baboons, skeletons and ghosts are all on the ‘Fancy Blues’ agenda.
Musically there is a cabaret feel, just like you are attending a show, in fact the album is designed in such a way to give the idea of a performance. Flipron may not change the world with their music but with all the turmoil that is going on, it sure makes it a slightly better place.
Go to page two of the site below to see the above review.
http://www.paul.camyouths.com/am/reviews.htm |
Vicious Car and love poem - Flipron