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David Thomas: Mirror Man Act 1 - Jack & The General

Artist:	David Thomas: Mirror Man Act 1
Title:	Jack & The General
Label:	Cooking Vinyl COOK CD 175
Length(s):	65 minutes
Year(s) of release:	1999
Month of review:	07/1999

Line up

David Thomas - melodeon
Linda Thompson - vocals
Jackie Leven - vocals
Robert Kidney - vocals
Daved Hild - vocals
Jane Bom-Bane - vocals
Bob Holman - poet
Andy Diagram - trumpet
Keith Moline' - midi guitar
Chris Cutler - electric drums
Peter Hammill - harmonium, guitar, keyboard
Jack Kidney - tenor sax, harp

Tracks

1)	Mirror Man Sees
2)	Mirror Man Speaks
3)	Lost Nation Road
4)	The Flying Duthcman Of The Interstate
5)	Ballad Of Florida
6)	Montana
7)	Ribbons On The Road
8)	Morbid Sky
9)	Nowheresville
10)	Shadows On The Face
11)	Memphis
12)	Over The Moon
13)	If The Deer Blinks
14)	Bus Called Happiness
15)	Weird Cornfields

The album contains the parts above, but I'm not sure about the links with the actual tracks on the album. Hence no timings.

Summary

David Thomas is well-known for his role in Pere Ubu, an avantgardistic band that is also appreciated within progressive circles (and correctly so). Together with a number of unexpected people such as Peter Hammill and Linda Thompson. One might think that Thomas wrote all of this, but according to the credits the music comes from everywhere and over quite a period.

The music

The album opens with a poem and then vocals with slight instrumentation. References might be Lou Reed and Ry Cooder, but more melodic I would say. There are some nice keyboard carpets and an eerie guitar. Later a trumpet and the guitar playing is really cutting, so sharp. The music now gets louder and distorted. In the fourth track I wonder what the instrument is. It has something of a harmonica, but also of a guitar. This song, Ballad of Florida, sung with wavery vocals. The next part, Montana, has the amotpshere of early Robert Wyatt on Rock Bottom and features some French accordeon. Now we have the female vocals of Jane Bom-Bane and Loud and high trumpets. It is not specified who sings on Ribbons On The Road, but it seems to be the same person as on the previous track. Playful, recitation. The music has a strong feel to it, one might call it Midwesternly, evokative of wide plains and empty freeways. Hence I'm tempted to think of Ry Cooder's soundtrack for Paris Texas. However the music on this CD is a lot less like "film music" and can be quite full and avanthardistic. The performance is usually very good and intense. This holds for instance for Jackie Leven in Morbid Sky. The (beautiful) vocals of Linda Thompson in the spooky Nowheresville sound a bit hazy, but the addition of David Thomas do much to compensate this. On Shadows On The Face we are back to talking with accompaniment, the second part is more sung, but still not really. Later the horns get downright furious in their playing and Henry Cowish anarachy comes into play. After some more relaxed material in the style of the earlier part of the album and for the most part it stays rather subdued. In fact, Bus Called Happiness, quite melancholic. The album closes with the slow Weird Cornfields.

Conclusion

The end result of putting all these people together has become something that surprised me: notwithstanding the many differences, the overall style of the album is very consistent. Now, this may not be surprising if there's someone writing all the stuff, but even that is not the case. All the inputs it seems have been channeled into something homogenuous. This however does not mean that the music is monotonous (some may think so), but because of the strong atmosphere and because of, it has to be said, strong vocal performances, vocal melodies and the occasional musical outburst and transgressions into chaos make this a worthwhile listening event. Not prog in a strict sense, but an interesting musical adventure that extends the boundaries of Pere Ubu, but also refers to the storytelling of Lou Reed, the soundtrack of Paris Texas, the anarchy of Henry Cow and the atmospheres of Robert Wyatt.