Land of Chocolate
'Unikorn on the Cob'
1. Musical Findings
2. Waiting For The Go
3. Double Standard Booth
4. Walk Fast
5. Upping The Ante
6. We Love You Lots
7. Broken Record
8. Unikorn On The Kob
9. Making Friends
10. Self Control
Musicians:
Jordan Perlson - Drums, Backing Vocals
John Jens - Bass, Chapman Stick
Brian O'Neill - Guitars, Backing Vocals
Jonn Buzby - Lead Vocals, Keyboards
Homepage: http://www.landofchocolate.net/
Looking at the above names, a lot of you will already be jumping
to some conclusion about the contents of this CD. And I'll say
straight away that you're mainly right. Yes, Jordan Perlson is
the same Jordon Perlson of Echolyn, and John is brother of Chas,
and also a past member of Finneus Gauge (although now changing
from drums to keyboards).
The opener Musical Findings puts us straight into Echolyn
territory. Interesting track, but one I feel that suffers from
trying to be over-clever in its musical construction. Waiting For
The Go works better for me, with its jazz guitar and voice
samples. Double Standard Booth is a further improvement, but as
with the early tracks, I do get a feeling that it concentrates
too much on the band's (admittedly fine) musical expertise,
making the tracks too overcomplicated for their own sake.
From track 4 the album settles and changes, as if they had
finished trying to impress with their musical 'chops' and begun
to really concentrate on strong song construction - i.e. they cut
the bullshit. And it's from here that both the album's content
and my own recommendation go on a sharp rising upward slant.
We Love You Lots is a gem. Quirky, riffy, it's like a Ramones, or
maybe Devo, meets Gentle Giant.
Broken Record - other than the dreamy slide guitar, I would swear
the band stole this from a Neal Morse greatest hits collection!
Unikorn On The Kob is the big instrumental of the album. Lots of
Echolyn-type meanderings as you would expect, but there's other
stuff there - early Rush, even Focus! It's a good introduction to
the band and obviously realising this, the band have made the
whole track available as a MP3 on their site.
Making Friends - do I detect a Zappa influence creeping in here?
Weird, comic book-like, a nightmarish sister track of We Love You
Lots.
The closing Self Control is another good track where the
soundscapes experimented with in the early tracks seem to have
been ironed out and refined. Maybe it's with this final track
that we really do see Land of Chocolate's future sound. It makes
me think that the album's track order is itself a chronicle of
the order in which the pieces were composed.
'Unikorn on the Cob' is perhaps what you would expect from a new
American band's debut album. To put it simply: Echolyn (mostly),
meets 'Beat'-period Crimson (slightly), meets the all-conquering
Spock's Bead. The album does suffer from what one would expect
was too many ideas thrown into the pot, and the band's own
distinct sound is still struggling to find its way out. But you
can make that criticism of many debut albums. However, there are
some real flashes of originality, which I hope can be developed
to give Land of Chocolate a real voice of their own. I look
forward to their next album.
Ian
Oakley - April 2001
Copyright Bathtub of Adventures 2001
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