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Album Reviews
Album Review: Ribbons – Royals (Osaka)
By CMU Editorial | Published on Monday 1 December 2008
Jherek Bischoff, aka Ribbons, is a man with connections. Having been involved with such experimental corners of pop as Xiu Xiu and Dead Science, I expected his solo project to be seated safely in the realm of the obscure. Yet, while he may be a whizz kid behind a set of decks, Bischoff’s attempts at experimentalism career far into the oncoming path of pastiche. A collision was inevitable. Beginning in ominous waters with a dirty mechanical bassline spliced with the lush jangle of an acoustic guitar, first track ‘All Of Us’ initially sounds like an intelligent genre-striding beast. But then Bischoff starts singing. It then fumbles aimlessly like a sleepwalking, sleeptalking Thom Yorke. Even worse is ‘The Last And Least Likely’. I wouldn’t be surprised if Bischoff went Balaclava-clad into the Portishead household and stole from the box marked “rejected ideas” to construct this appalling piece of plagiarism. Other songs like ‘Automatism’ are an attempt at ambient experimentalism. But it’s about as fun as reading an academic journal on concrete – a single idea dragged out until it makes no sense. Later on, Bischoff does less thieving, but this just leaves the floor open for your realisation that the ideas he does have are so thin, each song is a patchy waste of space. Bischoff is undoubtedly a talented man. If he wants to continue with Ribbons, he needs to heed some simple business advice – invest more ideas, and results will follow. GB
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