Chronique de Pretty In The Morning de Steve Dalachinsky and The Snobs
The Snobs are from Paris and have for almost two decades now been mostly self-releasing their blend of improvised rock, cinematic textures, psychedelia and jazzy noodling on limited edition CDRs that don’t really do their expansive music any justice. On this album, which is something like their fourteenth and indeed second with the late, much respected NYC poet Dalachinsky (recorded in 2017, a couple of years before his untimely death), their music goes to those places I always wished The Necks would traverse as Dalachinsky reads some of his poems in an equally improvised way that’s sometimes a little haphazard but suits everything perfectly. There’s something of the ravaged beat approach to the proceedings suggesting dimly lit smoke-filled late night dives and an avant-jazz sensibility from a time perhaps gone yet still standing strong here. Only some of the more contemporary electronic touches to the music belie this, but these transport it to a space of its own. What’s apparent after first listening to Pretty in the Morning is just how much the respective work of both The Snobs and Dalachinsky’s commands further investigation. I don’t presently have anything else, so have had to make do with listening to this album about ten times consecutively. More like this most welcome!