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Kåre João | Sideman

Good enough: nothing more, nothing less.
CD, Jester

Tekst: Manuel Aalbers

Publicatiedatum: 01 september 2002

Kåre João (half Norwegian, half Brazilian) gained a following in his home country Norway with his punk band Kåre & The Cavemen, acquiring early stardom at the age of 15. That band's style evolved from punk via instrumental garage to experimental instrumental rock. In addition, Kåre, who almost finished a hairdresser's education (as the bio tells us) and posed nude (as the bio doesn't tell us, but a Norwegian friend does), played in five other bands of which Gluecifer is the most well known. Kåre & The Cavemen internationally released three CDs, some EPs, and toured Europe and America (where they called themselves Euroboys). In 2000, after a long-running conflict, the Cavemen/Euroboys fell apart and Kåre João became a store clerk. A year later, he had written a handful of songs and decided to record a solo album, which was released yet another year later. The result, Sideman, is a nice record; not a thirteen-in-a-dozen-kinda nice, but more like the why-don't-they-make-records-like-this-anymore, thirteen-in-a-dozen-kinda nice. Well, record? Or should I say EP? Cause this CD covers only seven songs in 40 minutes' time.

All seven songs are written, produced, and arranged by Kåre João, who also plays most of the instruments himself. The list of contributors is a veritable Who's Who of Norwegian underground rock, including Marius Bodin Larsen, two ex-Euroboys, and members of Whopper, Turbonegro, and Gluecifer. Kåre has described his music as "psychedelic blues." The first song, Captain Trips, has something surrealistic and haunting. Channel Five and Sunshine Blues, the second and third songs, are indeed bluesy; but where Channel Five, like some of the other songs, evolves within a wall of sound, Sunshine Blues remains true to its title and captures a swampy, summer feeling. The next song, Frank Furius, has something late-1970s-rock- and T-Rex-ish about it. Mission To Cure My Condition is a melodic soundscape from the same division as the first song of the record, while Love Report is the mellow and meditative song the title suggests. The last song, Dark Of Heartness, is perhaps the strongest song, combining the alternative pop feeling of some of Kåre João's songs with the soundscape feeling of the others. Dark Heartness is also a remix-friendly song of which I would like to hear both a techno and an ambient version in the next year or so.

So what makes Sideman such a nice album? The songs are simply good enough and "original" enough, the music really takes you along, and the production is excellent. Nothing revolutionary or breathtaking, but good enough. Nothing more, nothing less!

http://www.kindamuzik.net/recensie/k-re-jo-o/sideman/1817/
Meer Kåre João op KindaMuzik: http://www.kindamuzik.net/artiest/k-re-jo-o