Pizzicato Five
Playboy and Playgirl
[Matador]
Rating: 6.1
The title here pretty much says it all: this is the soundtrack to the next
"Austin Powers" movie-- the one that takes place inside a volcano on Okinawa.
It's all about strutting down the street in a pair of knee- high boots
twirling a mink- lined leopard- skin purse. False eyelashes and fake
nostalgia. Love that groovy Tokyo.
We all know that Playboy and Playgirl sounds
like an early '60s Breakfast At Toshi's banquet of kitschy song structure,
gooey melodicism, and shamelessly retro orchestrated pop arrangements. This
is, after all, Pizzicato Five. But is it good? Frankly, yes. Though indie
popsters throughout the land have taken it upon themselves to be the next
Jack Nitzsche, P5 mastermind Yasuharu Konishi's has the arrangement chops to
put those pretenders to shame. All the musical pieces fall in to place and
these songs gleam like the grill of a factory- fresh Aston Martin, with
flawless production that is nothing short of amazing.
Take the fat- ass drums in "A New Song;" more than just capturing the
percussive tone of the '60s masters, Pizzicato Five actually improve on it,
pushing those tube- warm snare hits into kinetic realms too hectic for the
flower- power era. Konishi never forgets that fun, backward- glancing music
has to have a groove to move to, and it's uncanny how he gives that ancient
percussion sound a contemporary edge. The beats on "Rolls Royce," for
example, sound like a robotic Hal Blaine programmed by Photek. Yeah,
Playboy and Playgirl definitely swings.
But funky beats notwithstanding, this level of winky lounge campiness can
only go so far, and ultimately, this isn't a record you'll probably pull
out very often. A band like Stereolab constantly interprets their influences
with an eye trained on the future; Pizzicato Five, like the bedroom of a
dead relative that hasn't been touched since the funeral, simply gathers
some rather elegant dust.
-Mark Richard-San