Matt Elliott is most famous for the Third Eye Foundation project. Somehow, the electronic Matt Elliott never appealed to me. I found the sound way too slick, way too elegant (I should give it another go someday). But I like Flying saucer attack, his noise-folk band during the 90s.
The albums released under his own name - another affair altogether; bleak, soporific music inspired by Eastern Europe folk music or dangerously inebriated cabaret chanting. Shanties & dirges. The lyrics are not cheery, but they are good. "Face down & fucked again / Taste of blood again / know that you three / were the last thing I've seen" are the disquieting lines that make up the lyrics of the incredibly mournful opening track of Drinking songs, "C.F Bundy". There are narratives about gunmen, soldiers, workers and a sinking submarine. Occasionally, there our outbursts of political rage. "We're free to do exactly as we're told / we're free to buy what we've sold / we're nothing more than slaves my dear / but our chains are made of gold." ("Chains")
Matt Elliott uses a large embargo of instruments, which makes his songs tread another territory than the traditional gloomy singer-songwriter with his lonely, howling guitar. His songs have a rich, yet intimate, sound that really brings home an atmosphere that lasts through an album and even two albums.
OK, let's have a shot of vodka. Or make it twenty.
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