Vladislav Delay/Antye Greie/Craig Armstrong: The Dolls
Huume

The convergence of diverse talents—Vladislav Delay, Antye Greie aka AGF, Craig Armstrong (a film soundtrack contributor to Moulin Rouge and songwriter for the likes of Massive Attack)—produces mixed results on The Dolls, with some of its twelve pieces impressing and others less so. AGF first sang on Armstrong's second solo album As If to Nothing and, when he later traveled to Berlin to record his next collection (Piano Works) at Delay-AGF's studio, the collective presence of all three developed into collaborative work and eventually an album's worth of material.

There's a loose quality to the music that's not entirely unwelcome but becomes so when it translates into pieces that drift a little too aimlessly. “Martini Never Dries,” for example, opens promisingly as an elegantly sparse vocal-piano trio setting but then lapses into a meandering improv. The album's open-ended, explorative feel is reminiscent of Explode, last year's Delay-AGF collaboration, with Armstrong's piano playing an attractive complement to AGF's vocalizing and Delay's drumming. The music often gravitates towards smoky soul-jazz with her distinctive voice draped across ruminative textures of piano and electronics (“Soul Skin,” “The Dolls,” “Star-Like”). Unfortunately, moments of promise go largely unrealized: the uptempo soul groove in “Night Active” works up some nice heat but the song's a fleeting fragment; “Kukkuu” similarly begins enticingly with a slow funk pulse and the entrancing query “Can you hear the kukkuu?” but fails to develop and also ends quickly. An indulgent jam feel pervades “Collect the Blue,” “Motor City,” and “Favourite Chord,” and the album reaches a less-than-enthralling close with AGF riffing off of “My Funny Valentine” during “Sunbird.” While the talent looks good on paper, The Dolls would impress more had the trio focused more on fully-fledged compositions and less on what at least sounds like improvs.

October 2005