Review of The Broken Record from Ektopia

I love Twink's crazy tunage and anyone who visits regularly will know that already. A while back I reviewed the whole of Twink's back catalogue and in concluding I mentioned that there was a new Twink CD on the horizon...well, Ektopia has managed to get the pre-release scoop and I can report that it's a mighty fine album.

The Broken Record takes us on a whole new kind of journey. Instead of creating tunes with toy instruments, Twink has utilised his massive collection of children's records to create a mashed-up musical world than none of us have encountered before. This is no mish-mash of sounds though, these tunes have been carefully stitched together to create both humorous and twisted compositions. For example, collect hundreds of records, find every one that mentions a monkey and put them all together..."Monkeys are fun to watch, look at the silly things they do!" Not only has Twink created a load of completely new tunes with these vintage vinyl records but he's also taken some well known tunes and twisted them into new and disturbing versions, quite discordantly haunting in places actually! These have mainly been created by taking lots of different versions of the same tune and splicing them together, a simple concept I guess but clever stuff none the less. Take the "Alphabent"! I think you can work out that this isn't going to be the normal ABC tune that many of will be used to...sure, it starts off that way but it certainly doesn't end that way. Some of the people on this tune need some serious help! "Three Blind Mice" also gets the Twink treatment as does an interesting, and completely mental, "Three Wishes" story.

Just when you think you've got a tune on this disc sussed Twink manages to somehow turn the tune on its head. (This has the same effect on your head too!) You are constantly forced to re-evaluate what you're listening to and where it's going. Granted, the disjointed nature of this kind of recording process means that some of these tunes aren't as relaxing like those on previous Twink albums but that's not the point, they're not supposed to. This is an historic kids' recording adventure and a departure from Twink's normal style. Why create something that you've already done before when you can broaden your approach and create a whole new genre entirely? Ultimately these are great tunes. They work on many levels and continue to amuse and entertain.

Take a listen and I think you'll agree that Twink could just be the DJ Shadow of kids vinyl, imagine that!