{"id":3361,"date":"2012-12-04T08:52:12","date_gmt":"2012-12-04T13:52:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=3361"},"modified":"2012-12-04T08:52:12","modified_gmt":"2012-12-04T13:52:12","slug":"ep-review-dc-fontana-pentagram-man","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2012\/12\/04\/ep-review-dc-fontana-pentagram-man\/","title":{"rendered":"EP Review: DC Fontana – Pentagram Man"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"With their latest EP Pentagram Man<\/em>, DC Fontana<\/strong> have executed a deft musical left-turn. The group first came to my attention via the inclusion of the neo-Northern Soul (albeit with combo organ) \u201cRemember Me\u201d on Shindig<\/em> Magazine’s It’s Happening!<\/em> compilation. Their 2011 album La Contessa<\/em><\/a> delivered the goods in a big way, landing on my short list of best albums<\/a> of that year.<\/p>\n

On that release, the group’s trademark sound was built around a few very distinctive elements: Karla Milton<\/strong>‘s assertive, expressive vocals (very much in a Julie Driscoll<\/strong> mode), and on other tracks, the Italian-language vocals of Kicca Andriollo<\/strong> (described by DC Fontana’s Mark Mortimer<\/strong> as the group’s “permanent guest singer” — ed)<\/span>. And DC Fontana’s beefy horn section added a defining element to many of the songs. The group’s original material managed to look both forward and backward at once, but a strong flavor of Northern Soul, sixties mod-ness and continental panache were all key elements in what made the group stand out from the pack.<\/p>\n

So it was with some great surprise that I received the music presented on the six-song Pentagram Man<\/em> EP. True, I did know that Milton had departed the group, the lead vocal position haven been taken over by Louise Turner<\/strong> (Milton does appear on backing vocals on one track). But Andriollo is also gone, and \u2013 this is where things take a dramatic turn \u2013 the horns have been pared down and all but eliminated on several tracks. This is a leaner, much more streamlined DC Fontana.<\/p>\n

And if that weren’t enough, the group has pointed its retro-meter in a decidedly different direction this go-round. Still expertly balancing vintage\/nostalgic styles with modern textures, DC Fontana hits all the right notes. But the group’s inspiration here leans in a much more, er, lyseric direction. The title track on Pentagram Man<\/em> sounds like a cross between the Brit-psych one finds on Nuggets II: British Empire and Beyond<\/em>, balanced with some big-guitar Britpop a la Stone Roses<\/strong> and Oasis<\/strong>. Subtle hints of Status Quo<\/strong>‘s \u201cPictures of Matchstick Men\u201d give a delightfully nostalgic flavor to what’s really a timeless pop song. Some tasty electric piano and splashy drums enliven a head-nodding outro.<\/p>\n

\u201cDevilAngel\u201d feels a lot like A Camp<\/strong><\/a>; though Louise Turner<\/strong>‘s vocal texture is distinctively different than that of Nina Persson<\/strong>, the airy and cinematic\/dreamy production aesthetic (with cavernous, twangy guitar) does invite the comparison to the Swedish pop group. Some sparingly-applied horns (note that they’re not completely gone, just dialed back) add a south-of-the-border flavor.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat Would It Take?\u201d departs almost wholly from what might be termed the DC Fontana formula. Deft acoustic guitar picking provides the bed upon which the song is built. True, the band’s continental bent is exercised here; the song’s vibe isn’t a million miles away from Fran<\/strong>\u00e7<\/strong><\/em>oise Hardy<\/strong>, but with less of an overtly sentimental feel. The song nods in the direciton of early 70s British folk, echoing King Crimson<\/strong>‘s original demo version of \u201cI Talk to the Wind,\u201d right down to some subtle flute work.<\/p>\n

\u201cSatisfied (Part One)\u201d may be seen (or heard) as a gift to those who wanted DC Fontana to stay where they were. Long a staple of the band’s live set, the song (as Part Two) appeared on their Six Against Eight<\/em> album, albeit in a very different arrangement. Here the swinging tune \u2013 built upon a deceptively simple two-chord foundation \u2013 is presented with more subtlety, substituting arrangement complexity for the verve and dynamic of the earlier version. Plus, it’s sung in English this time. DC Fontana fans will want \u2013 no, need<\/em> \u2013 both.<\/p>\n

An overt titular nod to a similarly-titled song by sixties Los Angeles scenesters Love<\/strong><\/a>, \u201cSighed DC\u201d dives into the deep end of neo-psychedelia, with swirling guitars, backward loops, and otherworldly textures weaving in and out of the mix. \u201cFound\u201d sounds and Mellotron flutes populate the first four-plus minutes of the piece; that first half can scarcely be termed a \u201csong,\u201d as it has little in the way of melody. More of a tone poem, it does unfold into a nicely blissed-out droning piece.<\/p>\n

An alternate version of the title track wraps up the Pentagram Man<\/em> EP. This version features Don Fardon<\/strong>, perhaps best known as (a) former lead singer for The Sorrows<\/strong> and (b) the first artist to have a huge success with a million-selling cover of J.D. Loudermilk<\/strong>‘s \u201cIndian Reservation\u201d (this was prior to Paul Revere and the Raiders<\/strong><\/a>‘ version). Fardon’s vocal gives the track a wholly different flavor from the main version, but once again, fans will want both. And when they pick up the shortish but no-filler Pentagram Man<\/em> EP, that’s exactly what they’ll get.<\/p>\n

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With their latest EP Pentagram Man, DC Fontana have executed a deft musical left-turn. The group first came to my attention via the inclusion of the neo-Northern Soul (albeit with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49,51,65],"tags":[647],"class_list":["post-3361","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-new-release","category-pop","category-review","tag-dc-fontana","cat-49-id","cat-51-id","cat-65-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3361","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3361"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3361\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3361"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3361"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3361"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}