One of the oddest of a set of very interesting albums released last Friday. Look Up Sharp by Australian Carla dal Forno, which kicks off like an Antipodean cousin to Jane Weaver before mutating into something altogether more strange.
What it seems to want to do is breathe new life into one of the most leftfield of all musical phases and instincts. That moment in Britain in the late Seventies and early Eighties when any number of arty, independent operators; Durutti Column, Eyeless in Gaza, Monochrome Set, David Sylvian, Virginia Astley, Wire, The Cure, Young Marble Giants and countless more decided to use their talents to open up a perspective that highlighted the essential alienated separation of human existence.
Look Up Sharp is a pretty lonely sounding album. It's also a rather good one. Hardly designed to set cash tills ringing it should nevertheless find the small set of people who will appreciate it. It may remind you of someone you were attracted to as a teenager but never really got to know. Not a record that necessarily wants you to like it. But all the better for that.
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