The Wardrobe is a collaboration between Andrew Liles and Tony Wakeford. Andrew who is a long running electronic/experimental composer has worked with such artists as Bass Communion, Hafler Trio, Steven Stapleton and Karl Blake to name but a few, while Tony Wakeford is of course the mastermind behind Sol Invictus, L’Orchestre Noir and as well many other on/off projects and collaborations.I’d have to say my initial reaction to this record was a weird one. As I pulled the CD out of the envelope my eyes meet with the picture of the sandwich that graces the back cover of the album (it looks really yummy too) and then I flipped it over to see the weird cover image of a doll. I couldn’t help but chuckle a little more when I opened the booklet and seen the picture of two very odd men; one of which, Mr. Wakeford was sitting down, he looked half retarded and was holding a gigantic stuffed pike (that's a type of fishy), while Andrew looked like his caretaker and his expression looked like a man who wanted to murder his patient. Crazy stuff.
Anyway, ‘A Sandwich Short,’ which is crazy British slang meaning, 'lacking in intelligence' is the second album released by this duo, while the first and now deleted, ‘Cups in Cupboard’ was released in '05. I unfortunately missed this album so I really don’t know if this album bares similarities to the debut or to Andrew's usual musical repertoire. One thing for sure though is that this isn’t really the usual thing from Tony.
Musically now, The Wardrobe offers up an assortment of acoustic guitars, ambiance, electronics, neo classical elements, cabaret music, experimentation and besides that just a lot of weirdness. There isn’t any sort of actual genre classification you can file this under as everything is quite random and unexpected. Vocals are nearly completely absent from the recording with the exception of some narration on the song, ‘Lucifer Before Sunrise’ by Helen and Alice Potter. This particular song is also a cover of sorts as it was originally a song made by Tony and Steven Stapleton (Nurse with Wound) back in thee 80's. There are other vocal appearances on the album, but I believe they are just samples.
Each track definitely has their own identity to them. Some are piano based songs, while others feature ambiance and neo classical sounds merging together, a few are acoustic dirges, but a lot of them are just odd and experimental and probably are closest sounding to Nurse With Wound. The album carries a lot of sentiments too; creepy, ominous, melancholic, silly, trippy and just plain indescribable.
During these past three years and some months since I originally got this album I've rarely pulled it out and gave it a spin, but when I have I've noticed a few new things and gradually appreciated it more.
I can honestly say though this is one of those random wacky albums that actually works better under the influence of some mind altering substance and considering I severely injured my back again this morning at work I'm currently doped up (thank you doctor) as I write about and listen to this release.
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