Billed as New Zealand's fourth most popular folk comedy duo, Bret McKenzie and Jemaine Clement follow in the grand tradition of such musical comedy acts as The Smothers Brothers, Dr. Gonzo, and of course Tenacious D. Toss in a bit of Frank Zappa-meets-Robyn Hitchcock styled mayhem (i.e. Bugged out genre blending and somewhat whimsical lyrical inspiration) and you've got a strange brew indeed.If you've perused YouTube at all then you've undoubtedly seen bits and pieces of the FotC stand-up special as it was hacked into little bits and delivered as a myriad of single song set pieces. The wonderful nature of those acoustic performances is at times lost here on the group's first U.S. Basically a 6-song EP that's meant as a tide over between their current HBO series and their forthcoming full-length release (due sometime in October), The Distant Future is broken into two distinct segments. The first three tracks more or less brush off the group's trademark live sound (that would be the quirky folk stylings) in favor of slicked out '70s schmarm; think The Carpenters meets Barry's Manilow and White with a dash of disco-lite tossed in for better or worse.
The lead off track, 'Business Time,' is what happens when two white guys from NZ channel the ghost of Barry White. You can thank Clement for the deep rooted baritone sexual innuendo that slithers throughout the track, dropping lines like 'Girl, tonight we're gonna make love/you know how I know?/because it's Wednesday/and Wednesday night is the night we usually make love/Monday night is my night to cook/Tuesday night we go visit your mother/but Wednesday, we make sweet, weekly love'. All the while slinky keyboard wraps itself around the words creating what, upon casual listen, sounds like some serious between-the-sheets music.
Pay closer attention to the lyrics, however, especially Clement's savory intonation and punctuation, and it's quite obvious that it's a piss take of the highest order. In many ways the slick production takes something away from the original acoustic version of the song that the duo routinely performs live. At the same time the song seems to suffer a bit in its current state, what with being separated from the hilarious visuals that accompanied it in the show.
There's a quiet, folksy respite in 'If You're Into It,' the second song on this collection. It rambles along to rolling acoustic guitar with McKenzie delivering quaint vocals in the lead and Clement dropping the low-end accompaniment. It's about deviant sex in the kitchen, getting lewd with some food, and other bawdy exploits of an epicurean tainted sensual nature. Of course if you've seen the duo's HBO show, then you've no doubt already seen/heard this song in all its glory (it's actually much funnier with the visuals of McKenzie singing to a girl and Clement popping up to provide baritone harmony). With 'I'm Not Crying,' the duo return to the Barry White inflections, using keys and Clement's warm baritone whisper to create a sense of bittersweet separation. Delivered with stuttering falsetto shifts and lyrics that declare 'I'm not crying/And if I am crying, it's not 'cuz of you/it's 'cuz I'm thinking about a friend of mine you don't know who is dyin'/that's right, dyin'/these aren't tears of sadness because you're leaving me/I've just been cuttin' onions' Turning '80s era over-produced love ballads on their end is a pretty easy target, but somehow these Kiwi's make it work with wry delight. Just as with the previous tune, if you've seen the show then you've seen the track performed in a much more visual sense (it appeared in Episode 1).
Not Too Distant Future
The final three tracks on the EP are all live, culled from a performance at Comix in New York City. These are shining examples of where Clement and McKenzie truly shine. From the elastic guitar plucking on 'The Most Beautiful Girl In The Room,' (which falters slightly due to crowd laughter that makes you realize you're missing the visual aspects of the duo's performance) to the between-song-bantering ('professional talking') of 'Banter' and finally the more aggressive pulse of 'Robots,' which showcases the pair's slanted storytelling abilities. While meant as a quick fix for those who dig the show as well as the band's live performances, The Distant Future can be something of a letdown, especially given the viral nature of the Net. All of these songs have been circulating around the ether for months, thus making their inclusion here somewhat redundant; it's a bit of a 'been there, done that' type of vibe. Of course those who are rabid fans of the show will want this little audio stopgap regardless of how many times they've seen those clips/episodes. As for what one can expect from the full-length, it's anybody's guess.
But it seems like it's going to be more along the lines of the slick production sheen found on 'Business Time' and 'I'm Not Crying.' If the entire album is cut in that vein it could end up overshadowing the duo's quaintness. Clement and McKenzie are at their best when they keep it stripped to the bone, using nothing more than acoustic guitars to accompany their often hilarious lyrics. Much of the success of their songs lies in not only what they're saying, but in how they say it. When they're rolling acoustically the lyrics and their voices become the central focus.
A lot of that focus gets lost in the more studio tweaked songs on this release. Let's hope that they maintain a delicate balance between the slick and the quaint come October. Definitely Download: 1.' Business Time' 2.' If You're Into It' 3.'
Stronghold crusaders 2. The Most Beautiful Girl In The Room'.