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Looper | The Snare

Looper at its best: where fiction and reality merge, post modernism rules.
CD, Mute/PIAS

Tekst: Sven Schlijper

Publicatiedatum: 29 augustus 2002

Former member of Belle and Sebastian and novelist Stuart David has been working on his solo effort called Looper for several years running. The debut album Up A Tree featured a touching collection of anecdotes set to electronic music, creating a very beautiful pairing. With a best-selling novel (Nalda Said) and extensive touring, as well as a second album (The Geometrid) in the pocket, The Snare marks Stuart David's third recording. But as straightforward as it all may seem to appear, the introduction of Peacock Johnson in his second novel, The Peacock Manifesto, is making it all a wee bit fuzzy. The line between reality and fiction is crossed here as both worlds turn out to be indiscernibly intertwined. Or are they? Could it be that one and one equals one this time around? Isn't every idea, conception, perception nothing more than a clear-cut case of perspective and construct? Plato's cave, trust no one; who and what is certain(ty)?

In The Peacock Manifesto, a lowlife ex-gangster tries to get a rather odd musical idea to work by teaming up with yet another dodgy character on his musical endeavor. This adventure is a great and highly recommendable black comedy. A top-notch novel featuring Peacock Johnson as the main figure and Evil Bob as his accomplice and sidekick, switches from fiction to real life because of several allusive claims in the promotional campaign for The Snare. To cut a long story short, Looper tells us Peacock Johnson got aggravated about the solo credits David took for the book, and even hacked Looper's web space. So, this real life Peacock Johnson settled the case when he was allowed to use Looper's new CD to put his musical ideas across, playing saxophone and producing the record.

Ah nice! Now we have a novel persona and so-called real life Peacock Johnson turning Looper's sound into a dark, almost David Lynch-ian, haunting, semi-hip-hop style. All right, cool. Somewhere, somehow, there is a non-fitting aspect to it all — a creeping suspicion rears its head.

An assumption, a construct, a perception, from my perspective. Just one possibility though: We are being played on a life-size scale here. Stuart David made it all up, wrote the fiction, pulled the concept a little bit further, staged a so-called web hack, turned up in emails as his alter ego . . . playing the game. A rather interesting move this is, indeed: Just get the friend that posed for the book pictures to join you on tour and the gimmick could turn out even better. Stuart David has always proved to be quite the storyteller, even in his Belle and Sebastian years, so no surprise there — and what a concept this would be.

For the believers, there is enough fodder for thought. Never trust your eyes, nor ears, and judge for yourself. Plot your own story here, fix the pieces to complete the puzzle, fill in some gaps, and enjoy the results.

To the continuing story of Peacock Johnson and his tales of mystery and imagination has now been added a musical chapter. The Snare is not an exceptional album for Looper. But a good one. The stories are put into heavy bass and beat-oriented songs. The lyrics are still amongst the best you'll be able to find, again emerging from Scotland's Glasgow area where so many great chroniclers reside, and it's quite amusing to David put on his lowest, most nighttime-ish voice for his "raps." Yeah, The Snare might be best described as a rap record of some strange sort.

In a world in which an ex-member of Belle and Sebastian is a great writer too (appearing to be a rapper too), fictional characters are real and alive, so everything might be true. Or not. Or which truth again? Your eyes are deceived, your ears are, and your mind is. Looper has been "fucking around" in a superb fashion (as the last song sings). Trust no one. This is life, this is a stunning philosophy of life. This is the real deal, people. Brought to you courtesy of the one and only Looper.

http://www.kindamuzik.net/recensie/looper/the-snare/1810/
Meer Looper op KindaMuzik: http://www.kindamuzik.net/artiest/looper