Cursor Miner ~ Cursor Miner Plays God
It sounds like Cursor
Miner might just have finished soldering his keyboards together as part of
a science project and has now been allowed to record the result in the music
room: vocoders are singing, oscillators are oscillating, noisegates are snapping
open and shut. “War Machine” sings the praises of digital warfare:
“In the bad old days of war, killing used to be a chore. Now there’s
just a switch to flick, oh so easy oh so quick...” The next two tracks
continue on similarly contemporary themes (“Man Made Man” and
“Gizmo Kid”), but then the album takes a left turn with “Sport
Of Kings” which presents eight and a half minutes of revelling in the
tactile joy of maxed-out analogue keyboards. It’s a foot-stomping crowd-pleaser.
Next up “Foetus” delivers a very silly lyric “I want to
be an embryo-o-oh, and live in somebody’s womb. I’m asking all
the girls if they’ve got any room” over a playground melody rendered
in fat, squelchy sonics. “Library” is a paen to the joys of borrowing
books full of groan-inducing rhymes. Final track “Grilling The Cheese”
is a companion to “The Sport Of Kings” in length and attitude:
it’s another floor-filler, this time in overdriven techno mode, to such
an extent that it seems it might explode or break apart at the seams at any
moment.
This is music for fans of early 80s electronic pop such as The Human League circa Reproduction and Travelogue, Air and Giorgio Moroder (“From Here To Eternity”). There’s also something of the humour of Dat Politics and Stock Hausen and Walkman. This album exhibits bucketfuls of enthusiasm: Cursor Miner is as unafraid of sell-by dates as he is of whistleable tunes. It’s full of disposable – but naggingly difficult to forget - pop tunes you might just wish it was possible to excise from your memory, if only you could. Cursor Miner Plays God is techno pop in all its thrashy, trashy, noisy glory. Don your silver jumpsuit, backcomb your hair as high as it will go and sing along.
This is music for fans of early 80s electronic pop such as The Human League circa Reproduction and Travelogue, Air and Giorgio Moroder (“From Here To Eternity”). There’s also something of the humour of Dat Politics and Stock Hausen and Walkman. This album exhibits bucketfuls of enthusiasm: Cursor Miner is as unafraid of sell-by dates as he is of whistleable tunes. It’s full of disposable – but naggingly difficult to forget - pop tunes you might just wish it was possible to excise from your memory, if only you could. Cursor Miner Plays God is techno pop in all its thrashy, trashy, noisy glory. Don your silver jumpsuit, backcomb your hair as high as it will go and sing along.
Colin Buttimer
July 2004
Published by Grooves
magazine