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| Andrea Parker is a classically trained cellist, a disc jockey of the drum'n'bass scene and, last but not least, an electronic composer with a penchant for analog synthesizers who collaborated with Philip Glass and Steve Reich. She started recording under monikers such as Two Sandwiches Short Of A Lunchbox, and mentored by producer David Morley. After recording Melodious Thunk (Mo Wax, 1995) in an ambient drum'n'bass vein, the following single The Rocking Chair (Mo Wax, 1996) was more like a concert for 40-piece orchestra (reminiscent of Albinoni's adagio) and creative samples than a hip-hop track. The brutal techno of Ballbreaker (1997) established her credentials for punchy dance-music and completed the formative period. The twelve tracks of Kiss My Arp (Mo Wax, 1999) better highlight her passion for David Sylvian's decadent/exotic elegance and Dead Can Dance's eerie/gothic atmospheres. Parker mixes string orchestrations, hip-hop percussion and heavy bass to create music that is highly seductive. The minimalistic Elements of Style (a Steve Reich-ian concerto of virulent jazzy drums, Caribbean percussions, standup bass), the suspenseful voodoobilly of Going Nowhere (ghostly noises, wild dissonances, tribal drumming) and the ritual music of Clutching At Straws (mournful cello, delicate harp, martial drums and tambourines, eerie electronic noises, metronomic percussions, and a dejected litany), three elaborate compositions that bridge several different genres, coexist with the instrumental Kraftwerk-ian ballets of In Two Minds and Some Other Level, with the pounding syncopated dance music of Breaking The Code, and with the ethereal cantillation, the futuristic polyrhythms and the baroque orchestration of The Unknown (Enya + Bjork + Richard Strauss). The orchestra has rarely been used in such an effective way by a popular singer. Rather than merely enhancing the melody, it provides an ominous emotional counterweight to Parker's delicate vocals. The other significant component, the rhythm, is channel through terrible schizoid spasms. The voice is a relatively minor factor (only half of the songs have vocals). |
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