Wisdom Of Harry - House Of Binary

  by Maarten Schiethart

published: 17 / 12 / 2001

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'Almost Prayed' was my favourite Weather Prophets single and when the debut by former frontman Pete Astor's The Wisdom of Harry came along last year, I was pleasantly surprised by its similar combination of poppy charm and dreamy beats. In the end though, 'Stars of Super 8' did not satisfy my need for refined songwriting. It was pretty tough humming to the trip hop of The Wisdom of Harry. Much of the atmosphere on "House Of Binary" is very submarine. Subdued rhythm loops alternate effectively with fine tunes. With quite a few of today's bands this adding of weird bits in between only serves as a consolation for a lack of actual songwriting, but not so here. On 'House of Binary' Astor's sketchy melodies work particulary well when pasted in with drum machine patterns, especially on the softer tunes. 'Caesar Boots' has Pete lingering on about a seperation and it is on tracks like these that his ingenious songwriting becomes apparent again. The single 'Coney Islands of Your Mind' is included, with the formidable hooks now having greater effect than on the 7". 'House of Binary' is perhaps a little less odd compared to 'Stars of Super 8'. Creation recording artist as he was, Pete Astor is twisting and toying with language, and still is drawing inspiration from B-movies it seems. The tunnel vision from 50's movies in 'Boxed Today' contrasts sharply with the spacey triphop beats . The word 'cinematic' has been used often enough to describe The Wisdom Of Harry. On "House Of Binary" Pete Astor is both art director as well as writer, and proves capable of both jobs. Like when dieselshower rhymes with lunch hour, itt's in many senses an impressive album with a gentle bite. Thoughtful and pretty wacky at the same time, its pop music that tries to stay unpopular in order to reach greater heights, but just can't. It's just too good.

Track Listing:-

1 Hello …
2 Unit One
3 Coney island Of Your Mind
4 Caesar Boots
5 March of the Otaku
6 Theme From Eggboy
7 Boxed
8 Disco C
9 Woke Up Buzzing
10 Sleepwalking
11 Year Without Speaking, The
12 I'm Going To Make My Life Right
13 Palefinger
14 Wisdom, The

Label Links:-

http://www.matadorrecords.com/
https://twitter.com/matadorrecords
https://www.facebook.com/MatadorRecords
http://matadorrecords.tumblr.com/
https://www.youtube.com/user/matadorrecs
https://www.instagram.com/matadorrecords/

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