Get Back Guinozzi! - Carpet Madness

Label: Fatcat Release date: 26/10/09 Website: http://www.myspace.com/getbackguinozzi Sounding like they took their name from a threat made towards a lecherous Italian Chef, Get Back Guinozzi! are actually a French duo, blending quirky instrumentation with the childlike juvenile charm of the Tom Tom Club and Life Without Buildings. The duo, vocalist Eglantine Gouzy and multi-instrumentalist Frédéric Landini mix and match influences, presenting a brittle sound collage, taking you on a journey around a Parisian garden maze through kaleidoscope goggles. As winter draws near, we retreat inside to the warmth for hot drinks and lo-fi pop daydreams. The need for art centre indie, with its welcoming fey mitten handshakes and cocoa at the bar makes Carpet Madness a timely release. The double edged sword that comes with putting out faulty music, music that sounds broken, maybe even slightly damaged is what makes lo-fi pop so endearing. The simple melodies propel ‘Where Are You’ immediately into your headspace, however when you first hear Get Back Guinozzi! adjustment is required, the unusual vocal styling’s of Gouzy that oddly veer into laid back ‘I'm Like A Bird’ Nelly Furtado territory on ‘Low Files Tropical’ and then eighties Pop-Goth enchantress on the conspicuous electro rhythms of ‘Personal Lodger’ continue to freak and morph throughout the album. Ger Back Guinozzi! possess a reckless quality that struts proudly amateur, but they also find themselves marooned on the awkward posture of deliberately lo-fi DIY. An up tempo, almost sarcastic cover of ‘Police and Thieves’ and the regressively boring ‘Go Back to School’ that is the equivalent of a dunce fondly whistling the Grange Hill theme tune, are black marks. Towards the end the album pales, ending with a messy bubblegum pop rather then a triumphant ACME explosion. But the doolally title track with out of sync vocals over country and western guitars typifies Get Back Guinozzi! as oddballs that are ever so difficult to place. That’s what makes Carpet Madness an intriguing puzzle of a record. What do you say about a melting pot album that boils electro, conventional pop, subversive pop, afro beat, post punk, the conventional, the unconventional and everything in between? Rating: 7/10