sat 30/11/2024

CD: Baxter Dury, Etienne de Crécy and Delilah Holliday - B E D | reviews, news & interviews

CD: Baxter Dury, Etienne de Crécy and Delilah Holliday - B.E.D.

CD: Baxter Dury, Etienne de Crécy and Delilah Holliday - B.E.D.

A small but perfectly sleazy work of sweary, cynical brilliance

“Caustic motherfucker”. There it is, right up in the first few lines of Baxter Dury's spoken narration over the sleazy, spanky electro beats of Etienne de Crecy.

There it is: a statement of intent, a phrase to relish in the mouth, that show's he's going to make full use of the English language. Of course, it's a descendent of his dad's “arseholes, bastards, fucking cunts and pricks” – Baxter has never hidden his musical and lyrical lineage – but it's also entirely his own, coming from a place that delights in the physicality of those consonants, and in the mechanics of storytelling and intonation that would make this a phrase that's grudgingly admiring of its subject.

Then in comes Delilah Holliday's singing voice, and it's as perfectly deadpan, but with just as sharpened teeth as Baxter's, and as the beats. And the tone is set. This album never deviates from the template of stripped-bare beat and bassline, maybe an electric organ chord or two, these two lived-in voices weaving around each other telling stories of abstracted disfunctionality, and phrases that instantly make your brain itch and stick with you for a long time. “Make love in a horrible hotel room”? Well OK, that alliteration works nicely... “I want you to be full of centipedes”? Jesus, really? 

This tiny album – nine tracks, most around the two minute mark – is made for the broken, the fag-burned, the weary and the jaded. For caustic motherfuckers too, probably. It's full of betrayal and yukiness, in fact it's just properly grotty, really. But for all that, the perfection of it – the consistency, the absolute dedication to not varying from the sheer dead-eyed sleaze sonically, lyrically and vocally from all three partitipants – makes it a thing of real wonder, beyond pure prurience. A sticky, tarry, grubby work of magic.

“I want you to be full of centipedes” - Jesus, really?

rating

Editor Rating: 
5
Average: 5 (1 vote)

Share this article

The future of Arts Journalism

 

You can stop theartsdesk.com closing!

We urgently need financing to survive. Our fundraising drive has thus far raised £33,000 but we need to reach £100,000 or we will be forced to close. Please contribute here: https://gofund.me/c3f6033d

And if you can forward this information to anyone who might assist, we’d be grateful.

Subscribe to theartsdesk.com

Thank you for continuing to read our work on theartsdesk.com. For unlimited access to every article in its entirety, including our archive of more than 15,000 pieces, we're asking for £5 per month or £40 per year. We feel it's a very good deal, and hope you do too.

To take a subscription now simply click here.

And if you're looking for that extra gift for a friend or family member, why not treat them to a theartsdesk.com gift subscription?

newsletter

Get a weekly digest of our critical highlights in your inbox each Thursday!

Simply enter your email address in the box below

View previous newsletters