Or, maybe, the James Orr Simple… with a cover that looks like a swatch for wood laminate flooring and a sound that dances around the jazz-folk meanderings of former Eska front man Christopher Mack, Com Favo is a seriously different proposition to the squawking, yelping boom and crash of most post-punk bands.
Com Favo is a strange creature: an album that has taken an astonishing five years to complete but clocks in at barely half-an-hour is either the sign of a part-time band or the result of some serious writer’s block, but it transpires that The James Orr Complex is a one-man band, with the odd guest adding percussion.
Twelve tracks of a Martin D15 acoustic guitar (relax, I’m not that clever, the cover explains all) and vocals is almost defiantly against the prevailing winds. Com Favo starts with folky guitar finger-picking and a mellow voice asking to join an “Angry Mob”. While people cite Mogwai, Arab Strap and Shellac, the James Orr Complex’s obvious antecedents are Nick Drake (there are distinct vocal similarities, and the jazz-tinged playing confirms it), John Martyn’s atypical jazz-flute album The Tumbler, Bert Jansch and the jazz-folk stylings of Robin Dransfield.
Christopher Mack’s only slight amendment to the formula is to add a Latin American tinge to his flights of fancy. That isn’t as unlikely - or as intrusive - as you might think: Brazilian percussion and the rabeca (a sort-of wooden bass viola/flute sound) flutter around the central core of the bright guitar noise. The James Orr Complex, it should be explained, have relocated to Sao Paulo, Brazil and recorded with local musicians before sending the tapes back to Mack’s native Glasgow for finishing touches.
Perhaps trying for the austere majesty of Nick Drake’s Pink Moon, Com Favo is always going to pale by comparison. The long, lingering stretches of pure guitar are undoubtedly beautifully played but, unlike his obvious heroes, Christopher Mack doesn’t have their song writing abilities. If you put Pink Moon on at a dinner party sooner or later the room will hush and all the attention will drift to the poignant music and aching heart of the songs.
However, if you put The James Orr Complex on at the same party you’re likely to go into a coma or just forget that there’s music on at all. Although I’ve played Com Favo several times and listened to it for a week there’s not one song that stands out from the others. It is as if the record is one single song just divided into twelve movements.
I approve of anyone who strives for a second chance at perfection, and the loose addition of Latin instruments is a masterstroke of ingenuity, but in order to achieve perfection the James Orr Complex need better songs, a clearer sense of their (his?) own individuality and either passion or resignation as a defining vocal factor. Played with precision, what Com Favo really lacks is a soul… and some more advanced lyrics.
This is still a commendable attempt, but why do people insist on trying to remake work that is already a masterpiece? It’s like trying to repaint the Sistine Chapel with airbrushes and Photoshop.
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Posted in Music reviews |
Tags: Com Favo, jazz, jazz-folk, post-punk, The James Orr Complex
