SETTING SON - Setting Son

After the all-consuming trips of Dragontears and Defectors, here comes the latest release from Bad Afro, The Setting Son: the hero is young Sebastian T.W. Kristiansen, singer, guitarist and organist, backed on his self-titled debut by Adam Olsson (guitar) of Aim, Marco Burro (bass) of Untamed, and the ever-present, hyperactive Lorenzo Woodrose (drums, percussion, vocals), who also produces the whole thing in a sober, functional style.

The record is a healthy dip into the purest, most essential garage sound, bordering in places on pop and bubblegum music (remember that?). The lovely cd single "In A Certain Way", which preceded the album's release (the track also appears on the record), eloquently foreshadowed its agile and incisive garage conception, marked by the insolently raw, at times monotone, adolescent vocals of Sebastian — a kind of naive trademark that can at times bring to mind the militant minimalism of a Sky Saxon (Seeds).

The liveliest, most engaging garage tracks are certainly "In A Certain Way", "I'm Down", the opening "Running Demons" and "Desperate Soul" (a little masterpiece of compact sixties sound, with Sigrid Inderberg's delicate flute solo). On the closing, sad ballad "You Better Run Away From Me", veiled in evening chromaticism, Sebastian Kristiansen unveils a thoroughly winning adolescent falsetto; it's a song about a goodbye, and Adam Olsson underlines it beautifully with a heartfelt, brief fuzz solo. Throughout all 32 minutes of "The Setting Son", the interplay between his sudden, aggressive guitar interventions and Sebastian's delicate, at times crepuscular, brief six-string phrases — and above all his minimal, thoroughly sixties-flavoured organ — is admirable: an integration that produces a small miracle of tonal balance.

The bubblegum/pop simplicity of Kristiansen's compositional vein, meanwhile, is plain to see in tracks like "I Wanna Be Your Boy", "All I Want Is You", "Le Sacre Coeur", "I Love You" — tender, almost teenage declarations, always thoroughly enjoyable nonetheless.

Setting Son, a Bad Afro release of near-disarming, naive garage-pop, at the opposite end of the spectrum from the two "heavier" releases that immediately preceded it – Dragontears and Defectors – which splendidly enriches the expressive range and roster of talent on the Danish label.

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29/10/2007