Effigies In Cork

Lukas Simonis, Bob Drake, and Chris Cutler knew each other very well before embarking on the Effigies in Cork project, so finding them playing together as a trio is not much of a surprise. What is surprising about Effigies in Cork is that the project originated from a desire to record a "twangy guitar" album — don't be fooled by the Deutsch Gramofon cover knockoff! Of course, you cannot count on these three to play surf music and leave the genre unaffected. Most tracks are in straight 4/4 (although, as he had proved when he was backing up singer/songwriter Peter Blegvad, Cutler can turn a 4/4 beat into many different signatures) and the guitar, understandably, leads throughout. If surf music is at the core of the project, progressive rock and avant-garde elements abound, such as sudden free-form breaks, bombastic build-ups, and processed guitar and drum textures. The result is strange and more complex than what you'd expect from twangy guitar tunes, but most of all it is funny, entertaining...and not very striking in the end. Effigies in Cork is a good album, full of intelligent playing and humor (a trait Frank Key — who titled the tunes and wrote the mock liner notes — readily picked up on). Taken as it is, it enjoyably fills up 40 minutes of your time and will put a smile on your face. But it clearly lacks bite when compared to A.A. Kismet's two albums (with Simonis and Drake), Drake's solo albums, or Cutler's various projects. Effigies in Cork makes a nice album, but there are definitely more essential items in the discographies of all three musicians. ~ François Couture, Rovi