Baxter Dury - Floorshow

Tue 2nd Aug, 2005 in Music Reviews

Most likely harbouring an acute awareness of the typical fates of most offspring-of-famous-musicians, Baxter Dury deliberately avoided a musical career – initially. By his mid-twenties however, he had succumbed to the call of songwriting, and by thirty he was completely immersed in a music career. And, defying all of the myths, Dury appears to be doing exceptionally well.

Joining 2002’s well-received Len Parrot’s Memorial Lift is his latest installment, Floorshow, in which the current line-up features former Spiritualized members Mike Moody and Elizabeth Frazer. Despite being jipped with censored cover art - UK releases feature a naked woman (pictured), while the Australian version is just her head and shoulders - Floorshow is a very impressive album. It’s an atmospheric success, rarely faltering and always mesmerising. It’s the kind of album that launches a slow assault, inducing in the listener an embarrassing tendency to pause and tilt the head, as if mere passive enjoyment of the album in the background just isn’t enough.

Opener Francesca’s Party turns on the charm immediately, with a deep woofer-worthy beat swinging into a gloomy pop delight. Dury’s duplicate vocals rarely sway from monotonous, flavouring the track with inside-on-a-rainy-day warmth, and heavy guitars fill out the sound with Velvet Underground-like chugging. The lead guitar tentatively bleeps throughout the verses and sprawls during the chorus, joining the cascade of textures at the end of the track.

As someone who absolutely hates spoken word in song, at first I try to pretend Cocaine Man isn’t there. Thankfully for me, it’s not a constant feature and Dury’s voice is comfortingly gravelly. The chorus is a stripped-back lazy delivery of vocals and swirling basslines, again with a keyboard-like upper melody and layers of lush synth sounds.

Unfortunately, it’s more or less the same formula for Lisa Said, and I’m getting a tad bored. Waiting for Surprises picks up the slack with its strangely nautical feel, swaying lethargically from side to side with punctuation from deep sea drum rhythms. There’s a hint of Spiritualized ethereal atmospherics in Young Gods, all gentle sorrowful piano and mourning keyboards. Synths and sustained vocals stretch out the song’s delicate tension, and a paper-thin smattering of drum kit accentuates the beautifully restrained climax.

It’s hard to work out whether the rhythm section in Sister Sister is organic or machine-assisted, but either way it provides a hypnotic and powerfully subtle element to the music. The chorus – which borders on catchy – is sulkily gorgeous, with vocals dipping even further down the scale and graceful arcs of reverb-heavy lead guitar.

The album’s title track begins beautifully, with those now-trademark feather-soft drums and a lilting melody. Dury’s vocals lead the song, defining the subtle lifts and stamping his deadpan and unique style all over the track. A rich patchwork of sonic textures, Floorshow is arresting and gentle simultaneously.

Cages provides the ‘rock’ element for the album, focusing on the guitar sound and Dury’s falsetto vocals, with the drums pushed slightly forward in the mix. The instrumental chorus is completely infectious, winding a riff that sounds incredibly familiar yet unique in this particular context. It’s a simple concoction of ideas that works unbelievably well and stirs up the collection of songs, seemingly just to keep you guessing.

There’s an emotive element to Floorshow that can’t be obviously pinpointed. Dury’s vocals remain relatively dispassionate throughout the album, yet his voice oozes feeling. The arrangements are clearly painstakingly slotted together, yet there’s an immediacy to the music that rises above even complete spontaneity. There are a couple of points where one sound is extended for slightly too long, but generally it feels as though Dury et al have cultivated an almost entirely unique approach. I certainly haven’t heard anything like it before, and I’m incredibly grateful I’ve been initiated.