Exposé Online banner

Exposé Online

Not just outside the box, but denying the existence of boxes.
Covering music from the fringes since 1993.

Reviews

Hamster Theatre — Siege on Hamburger City
(Cricetus Records CR HT01, 1998, CD)

Siege on Hamburger City Cover art

Most musicians of any era produce music that falls recognizably into a tradition. Mainstream pop is the most obvious example, with current artists taking inspiration from previous generations (Motown, Dylan, whatever). The same thing is true in progressive music: many artists are clearly mining the veins discovered by Genesis, King Crimson, and the other original innovators. Then you get some music that seems to exist in a world of its own, either devoid of identifiable influences, or mixing a wide variety of influences so thoroughly that the result is unclassifiable. Hamster Theatre strikes me as a band from another musical world. Maybe there’s even a planet where Siege of Hamburger City would make the Top Ten. Maybe not. It could be that if the instrumentation were more conventional, Hamster Theatre wouldn’t sound so alien; if it were organ instead of accordion, sax instead of clarinet, they might sound like they fit in some prog tradition. Again, maybe not. The main thing that stands out on the first ten listens or so is that the music is ridiculously complicated, full of shifts in tempo, rhythm, key, and mood. You also notice that in the midst of the tricky arrangements, the band is fairly loose, sounding almost like they’re playing tunes everybody should know, not freakish constructions of abnormal structure. After ten listens you start to realize that the music is ridiculously complicated. I find that the more I listen to this, the more I enjoy it.

by Jon Davis, Published 1999-04-01

Hamster Theatre is led by the talented multi-instrumentalist Dave Willey. Hamster Theatre’s first album, Songs from the Hamster Theatre, featured Willey playing all the instruments himself. Originally, Hamster Theatre was just Willey, occasionally joined by friend Deborah Perry (now together with Willey again in Thinking Plague), performing on street corners. During one notable period, Willey performed solo We’re Only in It for the Money by the Mothers in its entirety! On this follow-up release, recorded live, Willey is joined by a full band (including Thinking Plague bandmate Mike Johnson). While Hamster Theatre’s sound draws on influences like Samla, Art Zoyd, and Henry Cow, their overall focus is altogether different from this genre. One of their primary influences is French sidewalk café music, and their songs betray a certain carnival atmosphere, with accordions (played by Willey) frolicking along in a very baroque, folksy way. Although the music is challenging, Hamster Theatre places more emphasis on having fun than on being difficult. For example, the pieces often stray into noisy, Rock in Opposition territory, but the underlying groove is based on good old foot-stomping music. The excellent live sound adds to this energy. Overall, this is a good, fun album that throws more than its share of curveballs along the way. I recommend it for any hard core RIO fans that really need to loosen up a little. It’s a RIO-laxative. And you won’t be disappointed in the musical merits of Willey’s compositions, for he writes intricate, layered ditties with a sense of fun.

by Steve Robey, Published 1999-04-01

Discovering spin-offs of Thinking Plague just after their new release on Cuneiform is undoubtedly a great pleasure, but may also be a source of disappointment. Fortunately, this Hamster Theatre album is not such a disappointment; it is, on the contrary, a very good pick in the mill of avant-folk and RIO music. Led by David Willey from Thinking Plague this in fact the second release by this mi-solo mi-group project which lays the emphasis on instrumental parts. This music is devoted to the re-visitation of Eastern folklore in a humorous way, adopting strong folk-sih influences as well as some postclassical inflexions. If one may call it RIO, this is in fact far closer to the Zamla of Family Cracks than to Henry Cow or 5uu’s. Just try to imagine Bob Drake meeting some drunken members of Univers Zero and you will have a rather decent picture of what musical atmospheres Hamster Theatre is able to create. This is a music for Hungarian dancers, for RIO lovers, or for weird ballet scores. There is joy and life, tears and sorrow in this music which defies any genre barrier and which is mostly acknowledgeable by its openness. This surely is one of the best releases of 1998 in this rather ignored stream of music and also a very good place to enter some unusual musical territories.

by Jerome Schmidt, Published 1999-04-01

Filed under: New releases, Issue 17, 1998 releases

Related artist(s): Dave Willey, Hamster Theatre, Mike Johnson

 

What's new

These are the most recent changes made to artists, releases, and articles.